  Context. Technical Debt (TD) is a metaphor for technical problems that are
not visible to users and customers but hinder developers in their work, making
future changes more difficult. TD is often incurred due to tight project
deadlines and can make future changes more costly or impossible. Project
Management usually focuses on customer benefits and pays less attention to
their IT systems' internal quality. TD prevention should be preferred over TD
repayment because subsequent refactoring and re-engineering are expensive.
Objective. This paper evaluates a framework focusing on both TD prevention and
TD repayment in the context of agile-managed projects. The framework was
developed and applied in an IT unit of a publishing house. The unique
contribution of this framework is the integration of TD management into project
management. Method. The evaluation was performed as a comparative case study
based on ticket statistics and two structured surveys. The surveys were
conducted in the observed IT unit using the framework and a comparison unit not
using the framework. The first survey targeted team members, the second one IT
managers. Results. The evaluation shows that in this IT unit, the TAP framework
led to a raised awareness for the incurrence of TD. Decisions to incur TD are
intentional, and TD is repaid timelier. Unintentional TD incurred by
unconscious decisions is prevented. Furthermore, better communication and
better planning of the project pipeline can be observed. Conclusions. We
provide an insight into practitioners' ways to identify, monitor, prevent and
repay TD. The presented framework includes a feasible method for TD prevention
despite tight timelines by making TD repayment part of project management.
