DOES TECHNICAL DEBT MANAGMENT ENABLE DIGITAL MATURITY?
Resumo
The digital age requires a broader understanding of the organization's current scenario, resources and capabilities, and a dynamic mindset to develop a strategy capable of overcoming internal barriers. Competition changes shape, and new entrants, born digital, do not weigh legacy systems or a culture built in an analog environment. As a result of the pressure, information technology executives must make decisions that favor the speed of delivery of new features over those that improve product quality, generating technical debt (TD). Leading digital maturity (DM) companies are reaching the best organizational performance with a growth rate up to 3x higher. However, 97% of organizations say they face barriers to digital transformation, such as modernization of legacy systems. The extant scientific literature has not sufficiently explored the relationship between TD and DM and this study seeks two main contributions. The first aim is to develop the existing theoretical model to better explain the complex phenomenon of TD and its relationship with DM. The second intends to test the hypothesis that TD management practices positively affect the organization's DM. The evidence in this study indicates that TD management act as an enabler of organization's DM, promoting a discussion on their prioritization.