Bitwarden's Tech Breakdown Template is the standard artifact a team produces before implementation begins on a non-trivial change. It captures the technical design — what's being built, what it touches, what alternatives were considered, what the cross-team impact is — at the level of fidelity another engineer or another team can act on. This skill is the working playbook for drafting the engineering content (Parts 1, 2, 4, 5, 6) and managing the document's status lifecycle. Part 3 (cross-team signoffs) and the completion-communication checklist live in the companion skill Skill(coordinating-cross-team-breakdown).

When the canonical template structure is needed, fetch page 2920349776 via get_confluence_page; this document is the operating summary, not the source of truth.

Who Drafts a Tech Breakdown

The tech lead traditionally owns the breakdown for the team's work, but software engineers contribute heavily to or fully draft sections. Two common ownership patterns:

Engineer-led: an engineer picks up a piece of scope and drafts the breakdown end-to-end, with the tech lead reviewing before it moves to PROPOSED.
Tech-lead-led: the tech lead frames the problem, populates Parts 1 and 2 with the team, and divides Part 4 specification artifacts among engineers.

This skill is written for whoever is at the keyboard. The activities are the same; the review path differs.

Before You Start: Orient on the Initiative

If the change exists under a larger BW Initiative — an epic the team received from a shepherd through the Software Initiative Funnel — run Skill(navigating-the-initiative-funnel) first. It surfaces the context that feeds multiple parts of the breakdown:

writing-tech-breakdowns

Who Drafts a Tech Breakdown

Before You Start: Orient on the Initiative