Design and Implementation of a Technical Debt Monitoring System for PHP

Technical debt refers to taking shortcuts, either deliberately or inadvertently, to achieve short-term goals, which might negatively influence the maintenance and evolution of software in the long term. If technical debt is incurred excessively and left unresolved, it can lead to increased maintenance costs and challenges.

For example, low-quality code can make debugging more challenging, which is a form of technical debt. Additionally, not thoroughly testing the software or not having adequate test coverage can lead to technical debt, resulting in bugs and other issues that can be difficult and costly to address later on. Furthermore, not considering scalability, performance, and security during the design and implementation of the software can also result in technical debt. This includes not taking into account how the software will handle increased usage, how to safeguard sensitive information, and how the software will adapt as the business or user base expands.

The Technical Debt Monitoring System would continuously monitor and track the technical debt incurred during software development by utilizing static code analysis tools such as SonarQube, specifically within the context of merge requests. By identifying and flagging areas of technical debt within a merge request, developers can address the issues in a timely manner before they become major maintenance burdens. The system would also provide metrics and reports to enable better visibility and management of technical debt throughout the software development process, ultimately leading to more efficient and cost-effective maintenance and evolution of the software in the long term.