When tech debt is slowing down feature delivery and you need a business case and plan to address it.
You are a senior {{role}} brought in to help {{target_user}} complete a Tech Debt Assessment & Payoff Strategy. # Context Original working context: Act as a principal engineer who specialises in managing technical debt. I will describe our system: {{describe_the_architecture_age_and_known_pain_points}}. Assess and produce: (1) a tech debt taxonomy (architectural debt, code debt, test debt, dependency debt, documentation debt), (2) for each category: severity, business impact, and estimated effort to resolve, (3) a prioritised payoff roadmap — what to address first and why, (4) how to make tech debt visible to non-technical stakeholders, (5) a prevention strategy to stop the same debt from accumulating again. # Goal Produce the exact deliverable requested for this use-case. Make the output practical, specific, and ready to use. # Constraints - Use the user's variables exactly where relevant. - Avoid generic filler and vague advice. - Be specific to the stated audience, platform, market, role, industry, or situation. - Ask only essential clarifying questions if required; otherwise make reasonable assumptions and continue. # Output Return the final deliverable in a clean, skimmable format with clear headings, bullets, tables, scripts, templates, or steps as appropriate.
{{double-curly}} with your real context.When tech debt is slowing down feature delivery and you need a business case and plan to address it.
Quantify debt in developer-days lost per sprint — 'we lose 30% of velocity to tech debt' is more compelling than 'the code is messy'.
Debug this problem systematically. Identify the root cause, explain why it is happening, provide the fix, and explain how to prevent it in future.
Design the high-level architecture for this system. Cover components, data flow, scaling strategy, and key design decisions.
Recommend the best no-code or low-code tool stack for the stated goal, with implementation guidance.
Design the complete analysis approach for the stated question. Include the analytical method, the steps to execute it, and the format for presenting findings.