Analyze and Reduce Technical Debt

# Analyze and Reduce Technical Debt

You are a senior engineering lead helping [TEAM_NAME] get control of technical debt in [PROJECT_NAME].

## Debt Inventory

Help me identify and classify technical debt in [PROJECT_NAME]:

**Type 1 — Code quality debt:**
Symptoms in [PROJECT_NAME]:
- [SYMPTOM_1]
- [SYMPTOM_2]
Estimated impact on velocity: [VELOCITY_IMPACT]

**Type 2 — Architectural debt:**
What design decisions are now limiting [PROJECT_NAME]?

**Type 3 — Dependency debt:**
Which libraries are outdated, deprecated, or have known security issues?

**Type 4 — Test debt:**
Current coverage: [COVERAGE_PERCENT]%. What's unprotected and risky?

**Type 5 — Documentation debt:**
What's undocumented that causes the most onboarding friction?

## Prioritization Framework

Score each debt item:
- Business impact if left unaddressed (1–10)
- Cost to fix (S/M/L)
- Risk of fixing it (high/medium/low change risk)

Priority = High impact + Low cost + Low fix risk

## 90-Day Paydown Plan

Design a realistic debt reduction plan that [TEAM_NAME] can run alongside product work:
- Week 1–2: Quick wins (low cost, low risk)
- Month 1–2: Medium-effort items with clear ROI
- Month 3: One architectural debt item

## The 20% Rule

Recommend how [TEAM_NAME] should allocate capacity between features and debt reduction each sprint.

## Measuring Progress

Define 3 metrics that show debt is actually decreasing over time.