Exploring the Relationship Between Ownership and Contribution Alignment and Code Technical Debt

Abstract: Software development organisations aim to stay effective and efficient amid growing system complexity. To address this, they often form small teams focused on separate components that can be independently developed, tested, and deployed. Aligning architecture with organisational structures is crucial for effective communication and collaboration, reducing code and architectural degradation. Assigning specific component responsibility to the teams primarily working on them is key to these goals. This article explores the relationship between ownership and contribution alignment and code quality degradation, measured as technical debt per line of code. It also examines how team structure changes impact their ability to manage code quality degradation. We conducted a case study in a company developing a large software system, analysing ten components managed by one team. This team was later split into two, redistributing components between the new teams. Archival data from development tools used in their daily operations was collected. Before the split, there was a statistically significant negative correlation between contribution alignment and technical debt density in four components, indicating that higher contribution alignment leads to lower technical debt density and better code quality. After the split, this negative correlation persisted in three components, while five components showed a positive correlation, suggesting that low contribution alignment might worsen code quality degradation. Our findings suggest that contribution alignment is important in controlling code quality degradation in software development organisations. Ensuring teams are responsible for components they are most familiar with and minimising dependencies between teams can help mitigate code quality degradation.