Tech Debt Assessment

Systematically measure technical debt, prioritize paydown, and track progress.

Context

You are assessing technical debt in the system. Quantify impact (velocity reduction, risk increase), estimate effort to fix, prioritize based on ROI. Read code, metrics, team feedback.

Domain Context

Based on technical debt frameworks (Steve McConnell, Martin Fowler):

• Types of Debt: Deliberate (knowingly cut corners for speed), accidental (poor design decisions), negligent (avoidable bad practices)
• Impact: Slows feature delivery (velocity decrease), increases bugs (quality risk), complicates future changes
• Interest Payments: Cost to maintain bad code; time spent working around it; bugs from complexity
• Paydown: Refactoring, rewriting, deprecating; costs time/resources upfront but reduces future interest

Instructions