Does it matter who pays back Technical Debt? An empirical study of self-fixed TD

Technical Debt (TD) can be paid back either by those that incurred it or others. We call the former self-fixed TD, and particularly effective, as developers are experts in their own code well-suited to fix corresponding TD issues. The goal of our study is investigate technical debt, especially extent which self-fixed, types more likely whether remediation time shorter than non-self-fixed how development behaviors related TD. report on an empirical analyzes issues five (i.e., Code, Defect, Design, Documentation Test), captured via static analysis, 44,000 commits obtained from 20 Python 16 Java projects Apache Software Foundation. results show about half fixed likelihood contained being negatively correlated with project size, number total Moreover, there no significant difference survival between Furthermore, keen pay when lower level issues, e.g., Defect Code Debt. Finally, who dedicated knowledgeable contribute a higher chance self-fixing These benefit both researchers practitioners aiding prioritization activities refining strategies within teams, informing management tools.