The Human Resources Debt in Software Business

: Sonja M. Hyrynsalmi, Minna M. Rantanen, Johannes Holvitie, Sami Hyrynsalmi, Erkki Sutinen

: Hongxiu Li, Ágústa Pálsdóttir, Roland Trill, Reima Suomi, Yevgeniya Amelina

: International Conference on Well-Being in the Information Society

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

: 2018

: Communications in Computer and Information Science

: Well-Being in the Information Society. Fighting Inequalities: 7th International Conference, WIS 2018, Turku, Finland, August 27-29, 2018, Proceedings

: Communications in Computer and Information Science

: 907

: 28

: 41

: 978-3-319-97930-4

: 978-3-319-97931-1

: 1865-0929

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97931-1_3

: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97931-1_3

This conceptual-analytical paper presents and defines the concept of `human resource debt' (i.e., HR debt). The presented concept draws from the software engineering field's recent work in the technical debt management, yet it departures from the existing conceptualizations by focusing on skills and competences of individual employees as well as emphasizing the need to manage the skill pool with conscious decisions. As with its paragons, this novel concept aims to help to understand, control and utilize better the phenomenon by using a simple metaphor. In addition, the metaphor, borrowed from the economics, also emphasizes the potential price that has to be paid back later. In the discussion, the ever-changing software industry is used as an example industrial domain; however, the concept should be generalizable to other fields. Finally, the paper lays foundations for future work and proposes initial actions needed for forming a proper research agenda.