  The ever-increasing amount, variety as well as generation and processing
speed of today's data pose a variety of new challenges for developing
Data-Intensive Software Systems (DISS). As with developing other kinds of
software systems, developing DISS is often done under severe pressure and
strict schedules. Thus, developers of DISS often have to make technical
compromises to meet business concerns. This position paper proposes a
conceptual model that outlines where Technical Debt (TD) can emerge and
proliferate within such data-centric systems by separating a DISS into three
parts (Software Systems, Data Storage Systems and Data). Further, the paper
illustrates the proliferation of Database Schema Smells as TD items within a
relational database-centric software system based on two examples.
