Tech Debt Prioritizer

Systematically prioritize and pay down technical debt.

Scoring Rubric

Impact Score (1-10)

10 - Critical:

• Prevents new features

• Causes frequent prod incidents

• Blocks multiple teams

7-9 - High:

• Significantly slows development

• Causes occasional incidents

• Affects one team heavily

4-6 - Medium:

• Moderate development friction

• Rare incidents

• Workarounds exist

1-3 - Low:

• Minor annoyance

• No incidents

• Easy workarounds

Risk Score (1-10)

10 - Critical:

• Security vulnerability

• Data integrity issues

• Legal/compliance risk

7-9 - High:

• Potential data loss

• System instability

• Vendor end-of-life soon

4-6 - Medium:

• Performance degradation

• Occasional failures

• Deprecated but working

1-3 - Low:

• Code quality issues

• Minor bugs

• Style inconsistencies

Effort Score (1-10)

10 - Herculean:

• 3+ months

• Multiple teams

• High risk changes

7-9 - Large:

• 1-3 months

• One team

• Medium risk

4-6 - Medium:

• 1-4 weeks

• 1-2 developers

• Low risk

1-3 - Small:

• Days

• Single developer

• Very low risk

Priority Formula

Priority Score = (Impact * 2 + Risk * 1.5) / Effort

Higher score = Higher priority

Tech Debt Inventory

Sorted by Priority Score:

1. TD-005: Outdated dependencies (9.0)
2. TD-002: No database indexes (7.8)
3. TD-006: Missing error handling (5.7)
4. TD-004: Duplicate API logic (4.1)
5. TD-003: Monolithic build (4.0) ...

Detailed Assessment Template

TD-002: No Database Indexes

Description

Critical queries lack indexes, causing slow response times and high CPU usage.

Impact (8/10)

• Search queries take 2-5 seconds (should be <500ms)
• Database CPU at 85% during peak hours
• User complaints about slow searches
• Blocks performance optimization work

Risk (7/10)

• Database may crash under load
• Losing customers to slow experience
• Cannot scale without addressing

Effort (3/10)

• Identify missing indexes: 2 days
• Add indexes: 1 day
• Test performance: 1 day
• Deploy: 1 day Total: 5 days

ROI Analysis

Cost: 5 developer-days = $5,000 Benefit:

• 80% faster queries
• 50% less DB CPU
• Better user experience
• Enables scaling

ROI: Very High

Implementation Plan

1. Run EXPLAIN on slow queries
2. Identify missing indexes
3. Add indexes in development
4. Test query performance
5. Deploy to production (off-peak)
6. Monitor impact

Dependencies

• None (can start immediately)

Owner

Backend Team

Status

Backlog → Prioritized for Q1

Quarterly Paydown Plan

Q1 2024 Tech Debt Paydown

Budget: 20% of engineering time (4 weeks total)

Week 1-2: High Priority

• TD-005: Update dependencies (2 days)
• TD-002: Add database indexes (5 days)
• TD-006: Add error handling (3 days)

Week 3: Medium Priority

• TD-004: Eliminate duplicate logic (5 days)

Week 4: Quick Wins

• TD-012: Fix broken tests (2 days)
• TD-015: Remove dead code (2 days)
• TD-018: Update README (1 day)

Success Metrics

• Reduce P1 incidents by 30%
• Improve deployment confidence
• Decrease development friction
• Team morale improvement

Decision Framework

When to Pay Down Debt

Pay down NOW if:

• Security vulnerability

• Causing frequent incidents

• Blocking critical features

• High impact, low effort

Pay down SOON if:

• Slowing development significantly

• Medium-high risk

• Reasonable effort

Defer if:

• Low impact and low risk

• Very high effort

• Better alternatives exist

When to Increase Budget

Indicators debt budget needs increase:

• Velocity declining
• Incident rate increasing
• Developer satisfaction down
• Onboarding time increasing
• "It's too hard to..." complaints

Tech Debt Registry

interface TechDebt { id: string; title: string; description: string;

// Scoring impact: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10; risk: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10; effort: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10;

// Metadata owner: string; createdAt: Date; targetQuarter?: string; status: "backlog" | "prioritized" | "in-progress" | "done";

// Context affectedSystems: string[]; relatedDebt: string[];

// Plan implementationPlan?: string; roi?: "low" | "medium" | "high" | "very-high"; }

Quarterly Review Process

1. Collect new debt (Week 1)

   • Team submits tech debt items
   • Engineering leads review and score

2. Prioritize (Week 2)

   • Calculate priority scores
   • Review high-priority items
   • Assign owners

3. Plan quarter (Week 3)

   • Allocate 10-20% capacity
   • Schedule work
   • Set success metrics

4. Review results (End of quarter)

   • Measure impact
   • Adjust process
   • Celebrate wins

Best Practices

• Track systematically: Don't rely on memory

• Score objectively: Use rubric consistently

• Regular reviews: Quarterly minimum

• Budget time: 10-20% of sprint capacity

• Quick wins: Include easy items for morale

• Measure impact: Track improvements

• Make visible: Dashboard, reports

• No judgment: Tech debt is normal

Output Checklist

• Tech debt items catalogued

• Impact/risk/effort scores assigned

• Priority scores calculated

• Items ranked by priority

• Top 10 items detailed

• Quarterly plan created

• Budget allocated (% of time)

• Owners assigned

• Success metrics defined

• Review cadence established