Technical Debt stands as a pivotal metaphor in the realm of software evolution, representing development shortcuts taken for expediency that cause the degradation of internal software quality. A critical element of the technical debt metaphor is its ability to bridge the communication gap between technical and non-technical stakeholders within software development teams. The International Conference on Technical Debt (TechDebt) is the flagship conference dedicated to discuss how to identify, address, and manage technical debt in software projects. This premier event unites leading researchers and practitioners in software engineering to explore diverse strategies for managing various forms of technical debt, share experiences and best practices, and identify the most pressing challenges faced by both industry and academia.
The 9th International Conference on Technical Debt will be held in April 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As the previous editions, TechDebt will be co-located with the 48th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2026).
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Sun 12 AprDisplayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change
08:00 - 17:30 | Sunday RegistrationICSE Social, Networking and Special Rooms at Main Entrance Registration for ICSE 2026. | ||
08:00 9h30mRegistration | ICSE 2026 Registration ICSE Social, Networking and Special Rooms | ||
09:00 - 10:30 | |||
09:00 5mDay opening | Welcome to TechDebt 2026 TechDebt Program A: Rodrigo Spinola Virginia Commonwealth University, A: Carolyn Seaman University of Maryland Baltimore County, A: Jeffrey C. Carver University of Alabama | ||
09:05 65mKeynote | AI and Technical Debt: Friend or Foe? TechDebt Program | ||
10:10 20mTalk | Investigating Technical Debt Types, Issues, and Solutions in Serverless Computing Technical Papers Hasini Sumalee Perera University of Saskatchewan, Zadia Codabux University of Saskatchewan, Fabio Palomba University of Salerno | ||
10:30 - 11:00 | Sunday Morning BreakICSE Catering at Catering and Exhibition Hall (Europa I to IV) Morning Break with a variety of beverages and snacks available for attendees. This break will provide an opportunity for networking and relaxation between sessions. | ||
10:30 30mCoffee break | Break ICSE Catering | ||
12:30 - 14:00 | Sunday LunchICSE Catering at Catering and Exhibition Hall (Europa I to IV) Lunch time with a variety of meal options available for attendees, including vegetarian choices. This session will provide an opportunity for attendees to enjoy a meal while networking with colleagues and discussing the day’s events. | ||
12:30 90mLunch | Lunch ICSE Catering | ||
14:00 - 15:30 | |||
14:00 70mKeynote | Three Flavors of Technical Debt in Practice TechDebt Program | ||
15:10 20mTalk | Beyond Production Code: A Pull Request–Based Study of Technical Debt in Test Code Technical Papers José Rocha do Amaral Neto Federal University of Campina Grande, Everton L. G. Alves Federal University of Campina Grande, Eliane C. Araújo Federal University of Campina Grande | ||
15:30 - 16:00 | Sunday Afternoon BreakICSE Catering at Catering and Exhibition Hall (Europa I to IV) Afternoon Break with a variety of beverages and snacks available for attendees. This break will provide an opportunity for networking and relaxation between sessions. | ||
15:30 30mCoffee break | Break ICSE Catering | ||
16:00 - 17:40 | |||
16:00 20mIndustry talk | Bosun: a platform for automated software transformations Industry Track | ||
16:20 20mIndustry talk | Collaborative Technical Debt Management in Open Source CAE Software Industry Track | ||
16:40 20mIndustry talk | Managing Technical Debt at Scale: A Strategic Approach from Latin America’s Largest Bank Industry Track | ||
17:00 10mOther | Agile Social Software Engineer: An Empirical Approach to Mitigate and Manage Social Debts in Agile Environments. Journal First | ||
17:10 20mAwards | Awards: MIP, Best Paper, Best Industry Technical Papers | ||
Mon 13 AprDisplayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change
08:00 - 17:30 | Monday RegistrationICSE Social, Networking and Special Rooms at Main Entrance Registration for ICSE 2026. | ||
08:00 9h30mRegistration | ICSE 2026 Registration ICSE Social, Networking and Special Rooms | ||
09:00 - 10:30 | |||
09:00 70mKeynote | From Technical Debt to Cognitive Debt TechDebt Program | ||
10:10 20mAwards | MIP, Best Paper, Best Industry Talk TechDebt Program A: Rodrigo Spinola Virginia Commonwealth University, A: Carolyn Seaman University of Maryland Baltimore County, A: Jeffrey C. Carver University of Alabama | ||
10:30 - 11:00 | Monday Morning BreakICSE Catering at Catering and Exhibition Hall (Europa I to IV) Morning Break with a variety of beverages and snacks available for attendees. This break will provide an opportunity for networking and relaxation between sessions. | ||
10:30 30mCoffee break | Break ICSE Catering | ||
12:30 - 14:00 | Monday LunchICSE Catering at Catering and Exhibition Hall (Europa I to IV) Lunch time with a variety of meal options available for attendees, including vegetarian choices. This session will provide an opportunity for attendees to enjoy a meal while networking with colleagues and discussing the day’s events. | ||
12:30 90mLunch | Lunch ICSE Catering | ||
14:00 - 15:30 | |||
14:00 70mKeynote | From Whispers to Strategy: the Benefits of Visualizing Technical Debt Management TechDebt Program | ||
15:10 20mTalk | The Effects of Early Socio-Technical Decisions on UXDebt Technical Papers Andres Rodriguez LIFIA, UNLP, Julian Grigera Centro LIFIA, UNLP, CONICET, CICPBA, Juan Cruz Gardey LIFIA Fac. de Informática, UNLP, Luis Farfallini Fac.Psicología, UBA, Gustavo Rossi Universidad Nacional de La Plata, LIFIA-Fac. Informatica, La Plata, Argentina, Alejandra Garrido LIFIA, University of La Plata & CONICET, Argentina | ||
15:30 - 16:00 | Monday Afternoon BreakICSE Catering at Catering and Exhibition Hall (Europa I to IV) Afternoon Break with a variety of beverages and snacks available for attendees. This break will provide an opportunity for networking and relaxation between sessions. | ||
15:30 30mCoffee break | Break ICSE Catering | ||
16:00 - 17:40 | |||
16:00 20mPanel | Special Discussion TechDebt Program | ||
16:20 20mTalk | MANA-RTD: A Structured Process for Managing Requirements Technical Debt in Real Projects Technical Papers Rhenara Alves Oliveira Federal University of Ceara (UFC), Anna Beatriz Marques Federal University of Ceará, Brazil, Amanda Sousa Federal University of Ceara (UFC), José Antônio Macêdo Federal University of Ceara (UFC), Rossana Andrade Federal University of Ceará | ||
16:40 10mTalk | Technical Lag as Latent Technical Debt: A Rapid Review Technical Papers | ||
16:50 10mOther | Process Smells in Practice: An Evaluative Case Study Journal First A: Eray Tüzün Bilkent University, A: Erdem Tuna Bilkent University, A: Emre Sülün Bilkent University | ||
17:00 20mIndustry talk | LLMs-Assisted Context-Aware Static Analysis for Security Debt Detection Industry Track | ||
17:20 10mDay closing | Closing and TechDebt 2027 TechDebt Program A: Rodrigo Spinola Virginia Commonwealth University, A: Carolyn Seaman University of Maryland Baltimore County, A: Jeffrey C. Carver University of Alabama | ||
Unscheduled Events
| Not scheduled Talk | An Experience Report on Technical Debt and its Socio-technical Root Causes in a Large Industrial Company Technical Papers Jens Bæk Jørgensen Mjølner Informatics, Morten Jokumsen Mjølner Informatics, Magnus Drewsen Jørgensen Mjølner, Nina Wiborg Mølgaard Mjølner Informatics, Henrik Bærbak Christensen Aarhus University |
Accepted Papers
Call for Papers
Update: Best Papers will be invited to submit extended versions to a Special Section of Information and Software Technology.
Motivation
Technical Debt stands as a pivotal metaphor in the realm of software evolution, representing development shortcuts taken for expediency that cause the degradation of internal software quality. A critical element of the technical debt metaphor is its ability to bridge the communication gap between technical and non-technical stakeholders within software development teams. The International Conference on Technical Debt (TechDebt) is the flagship conference dedicated to discuss how to identify, address, and manage technical debt in software projects. This premier event unites leading researchers and practitioners in software engineering to explore diverse strategies for managing various forms of technical debt, share experiences and best practices, and identify the most pressing challenges faced by both industry and academia.
The 9th International Conference on Technical Debt will be held on Apri 12-13, 2026, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As the previous editions, TechDebt will be co-located with the 48th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2026).
Topics
The TechDebt conference warmly invites research and practical contributions to its Technical Track. The topics of interest are organized around three main themes: Technical Debt Core, Software Modernization, and AI applied to Software Maintenance and Evolution. They include, but are not limited to:
Technical Debt Core
- Investigations on Specific Technical Debt Types
- Specific technical debt types (e.g., test debt, build debt, architectural debt)
- Less studied kinds of technical debt (e.g., requirement, documentation, security debt)
- Other types of debt (e.g., social debt, process debt)
- Debt in specific domains (e.g., AI-based systems, mobile applications)
- Case Studies and Practical Experiences
- Case studies on successful and unsuccessful technical debt management practices
- Case studies on the remediation of technical debt in real-world projects
- Experiences from industry on managing and paying down technical debt
- Empirical evidence on the effectiveness of technical debt management tools and approaches
- Tools and Approaches for Managing Technical Debt
- Tools, demos, and libraries to identify, assess, and manage technical debt
- Methods and frameworks for identifying, monitoring, and managing technical debt
- Decision frameworks for prioritizing debt items against features and other debts
- Estimation of technical debt principal and interest
- Quality assurance practices to minimize and address technical debt
- Human and Organizational Factors
- Human factors in managing technical debt (e.g., team dynamics, communication challenges)
- Stakeholder perspectives and concerns about technical debt
- The impact of organizational culture and processes on technical debt accumulation and repayment
- Emerging Trends in Technical Debt Research
- Use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for technical debt management
- Software visualization techniques for technical debt identification and monitoring
- New trends in technical debt for AI-driven systems and mobile applications
- The role of software economics in shaping technical debt decisions
- Position and Vision Papers
- Position and vision papers offering novel perspectives on technical debt
- New conceptual frameworks and metrics to study technical debt and its evolution
Software Modernization
- Strategies and patterns for software modernization
- Architecture recovery and reengineering
- Legacy system analysis and transformation
- Automated and semi-automated code refactoring
- Reverse engineering and program comprehension
- Model-driven approaches to modernization
- Modernization of monolithic systems to microservices
- Continuous modernization and evolution
- Technical debt in modernization initiatives
- DevOps and CI/CD implications on modernization
- Empirical studies on modernization efforts
- Tool support for software modernization
- Measuring modernization progress and impact
- Risks and challenges in modernization projects
- Socio-technical aspects of system modernization
- Case studies and industrial reports on modernization
AI applied to Software Maintenance and Evolution
- AI and machine learning for code/design/architecture technical debt prediction and localization
- Large Language Models (LLMs) for code understanding
- AI-assisted code review and refactoring
- Automated technical debt detection and remediation using AI
- AI-based tools for software comprehension and documentation
- AI-driven support for program analysis
- Intelligent recommendation systems for software developers
- Chatbots and virtual assistants for software maintenance tasks
- Generative AI for software evolution and transformation
- AI models for predicting software quality and maintenance effort
- Evaluation frameworks for AI-based maintenance tools
- Empirical studies on the effectiveness of AI in software maintenance
- Human-AI collaboration in software evolution tasks
- Threats and limitations of AI-based software maintenance/evolution tools
Paper categories
We invite submissions of papers to the Technical Track in any areas related to the theme and goal of the conference in the following categories:
- Research Papers (up to 10 pages, plus 2 pages for references only): Innovative and significant original research in the field.
- Experience Papers (up to 10 pages, plus 2 pages for references only): Experiences, case studies, challenges, problems, and solutions gathered from industrial contexts.
- Short Papers (up to 5 pages, plus 2 pages for references only): Early stages of research, new ideas, visions, and/or reflections; or technical debt-related tools.
All submissions must not exceed their page limit for the main text, inclusive of all figures, tables, appendices, etc. Two more pages containing only references are permitted. All submissions must be in PDF.
Upon acceptance, papers will be included in the 9th International Conference on Technical Debt proceedings.
Evaluation criteria
Submissions must be original and unpublished work. Each paper submitted to the main Technical Track will undergo a rigorous review process by at least three members of the program committee.
- Novelty: The novelty and innovativeness of contributed solutions, problem formulations, methodologies, theories, and/or evaluations, i.e., the extent to which the paper is sufficiently original with respect to the state-of-the-art.
- Rigor: The soundness, clarity, and depth of a technical or theoretical contribution, and the level of thoroughness and completeness of an evaluation.
- Relevance: The significance and/or potential impact of the research on the field of software engineering.
- Verifiability and Transparency: The extent to which the paper includes sufficient information to understand how an innovation works; to understand how data was obtained, analyzed, and interpreted; and how the paper supports independent verification or replication of the paper’s claimed contributions. Any artifacts attached to or linked from the paper will be checked by one reviewer.
- Presentation: The clarity of the exposition in the paper.
Reviewers will carefully consider all of the above criteria during the review process, and authors should take great care in clearly addressing them all. The paper should clearly explain and justify the claimed contributions. The weighting and relevance of the above criteria vary for paper types, e.g., a vision paper is primarily evaluated on novelty and relevance and not verifiability.
Submission process
TechDebt 2026 uses a doubly anonymous reviewing model for the Technical Track. Therefore, all submissions to this track have to fulfill the doubly-anonymous reviewing requirements (refer to the ICSE Q&A for more details). Any submission that does not comply with these requirements may be desk-rejected without further review.
Papers must be submitted electronically via the TechDebtConf2026 HotCRP site.
Submission site: https://techdebt2026.hotcrp.com .
Submissions must conform to the IEEE conference proceedings template, specified in the IEEE Conference Proceedings Formatting Guidelines (title in 24pt font and full text in 10pt type, LaTeX users must use \documentclass[10pt,conference]{IEEEtran} without including the compsoc or compsocconf options).
Link: https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html
Open Science policy
Openness in science is key to fostering progress via transparency, reproducibility, and replicability. While all submissions will undergo the same review process independent of whether or not they disclose their analysis code or data, we strongly encourage authors to make data available upon submission (either privately or publicly) and especially upon acceptance (publicly). If the authors cannot disclose industrial or otherwise non-public data, they should provide an explicit (short) statement in the paper.
Accepted papers and attendance expectations
After acceptance, the list of paper authors cannot be changed under any circumstances, and the list of authors on camera-ready papers must be identical to those on submitted papers. After acceptance, paper titles can not be changed except by permission of the Program Co-Chairs, and only then when referees recommend a change for clarity or accuracy with paper content.
If a submission is accepted, at least one author of the paper is required to register for TechDebt 2026 and present the paper.
Important dates
- Abstract deadline: Thursday, October 16, 2025
- Submission Deadline: Thursday, October 23, 2025
- Acceptance Notification: Monday, January 5, 2026
- Camera Ready Deadline: Monday, January 26, 2026
| Mon 26 Jan 2026 Camera Ready Deadline |
| Mon 5 Jan 2026 Acceptance Notification |
| Thu 23 Oct 2025 Submission Deadline |
| Thu 16 Oct 2025 Abstract Submission |
Carolyn SeamanProgram Co-Chair
University of Maryland Baltimore County
United States
Jeffrey C. CarverProgram Co-Chair
University of Alabama
United States
Paris AvgeriouCommittee Member
University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Netherlands
Alexander ChatzigeorgiouCommittee Member
University of Macedonia
Greece
Rick KazmanCommittee Member
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Antonio MartiniCommittee Member
University of Oslo, Norway
Norway
Klaus SchmidCommittee Member
University of Hildesheim
Germany
Ronnie de Souza SantosCommittee Member
University of Calgary
Canada
Apostolos AmpatzoglouCommittee Member
University of Macedonia
Greece
Francesca Arcelli FontanaCommittee Member
University of Milano-Bicocca
Lina OchoaCommittee Member
Eindhoven University of Technology
Wesley K.G. AssunçãoCommittee Member
North Carolina State University
United States
Madhurima ChakrabortyCommittee Member
Axiarete.ai
United States
Oscar ChaparroCommittee Member
William & Mary
United States
Zadia CodabuxCommittee Member
University of Saskatchewan
Canada
Sávio FreireCommittee Member
Federal Institute of Ceará
Brazil
Qiaolin QinCommittee Member
Polytechnique Montréal
Canada
Nicolás E. Díaz FerreyraCommittee Member
Hamburg University of Technology
Germany
Antonio CurciCommittee Member
University of Pisa, Italy and University of Bari, Italy
Italy
Giammaria GiordanoCommittee Member
University of Salerno
Italy
Markus BorgCommittee Member
CodeScene
Sweden
Simona MotognaCommittee Member
Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
Romania
Elisa Yumi NakagawaCommittee Member
University of São Paulo
Brazil
Nyyti SaarimäkiCommittee Member
University of Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Rodrigo Rebouças de AlmeidaCommittee Member
Federal University of Paraiba
Brazil
Tushar SharmaCommittee Member
Dalhousie University
Canada
Roberto VerdecchiaCommittee Member
University of Florence
Italy
Auri VincenziCommittee Member
University of Porto
Portugal
Lanxin YangCommittee Member
Nanjing University
China
Marion WieseCommittee Member
University of Hamburg, Germany
Germany
Leonard BinamunguCommittee Member
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, College of Information and Communication Technologies, University of Dar es Salaam
Tanzania
Daniel FeitosaCommittee Member
University of Groningen
Netherlands
Rogerio GarciaCommittee Member
São Paulo State University
Brazil
Klara BorowaCommittee Member
Warsaw University of Technology
Poland
Martina IammarinoCommittee Member
University of Sannio
Italy
Wenxin JiangCommittee Member
Socket
United States
Yutaro KashiwaCommittee Member
Kyushu University
Maxime LamotheCommittee Member
Polytechnique Montreal, Montreal, Canada
Canada
Luana MartinsCommittee Member
University of Salerno
Italy
Emmanuel Iko-Ojo SimonCommittee Member
Australian National University
Australia
Nadeem AbbasCommittee Member
Linnaeus University
Sweden
Javier Gonzalez HuertaCommittee Member
Blekinge Institute of Technology
Sweden