Relationship between Cognitive Complexity and Technical Debt: An Empirical Analysis

Technical debt is important concept from perspectives of developer, software practitioner, team manager, programmer and analyst. So it becomes a mandatory to conduct research on the concept by considering various aspects that have impact on technical debt. In the context of maintenance, cognitive complexity is very crucial. This paper analyzes the relations between technical debt and cognitive complexity. A lot of research has been done on the cyclomatic complexity but surprisingly cognitive aspect is ignored. The study is performed on vektra mockekery PHP application. The open source github data of the versions of vektra mockery is taken and analysed by using statistical tools of excel and graphical tools of origin. The empirical study sheds light on previously unexplored factor of cognitive complexity on technical debt. It presents significant results that can be used to further explore the related factors to technical debt so that control of technical debt can be done as a consequence.