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Technical Debt Prioritisation Matrix.

When there is more tech debt than time to fix it and you need a defensible prioritisation framework.

ChatGPT Β· Claude Β· GeminiΒ·BeginnerΒ·~228 tokens
Curated by the AIPP team
Last updated 14 May 2026 Β· v3
technical-debt-prioritisation-matrix.md Β· 228 words
You are a senior {{role}} brought in to help {{target_user}} complete a Technical Debt Prioritisation Matrix.

# Context
Original working context: Act as an engineering strategy advisor. Help me build a technical debt prioritisation framework for {{describe_the_codebase_and_team}}. I have the following known debt items: {{list_5_10_debt_items}}. For each item, evaluate: (1) business impact if not addressed (revenue risk, developer velocity, security), (2) effort to resolve (person-days estimate), (3) risk of the remediation itself (could the fix introduce bugs?), (4) dependencies (does resolving this unlock other improvements?). Build a prioritisation matrix and recommend the order to address them, with a quarterly budget recommendation.

# 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.

The variables to fill in

PlaceholderWhat to put thereExample
{{describe_the_codebase_and_team}}Describe the codebase and teampaste your code here
{{list_5_10_debt_items}}List 5 10 debt itemsinsert your specific value
{{role}}Rolefreelance client onboarding strategist
{{target_user}}Target usera freelance consultant

How to customize this prompt

  1. Replace each {{double-curly}} with your real context.
  2. Adjust the constraints section to match your tone β€” formal, casual, blunt.
  3. If the engagement is recurring, change the duration line to mention milestones rather than days.
  4. Run it in your tool of choice. The output should be ready to paste with at most one small edit.

When to use

When there is more tech debt than time to fix it and you need a defensible prioritisation framework.

PRO TIP

Address tech debt that blocks other improvements first β€” resolving the highest-leverage debt item often makes subsequent items faster or unnecessary. 8 Cybersecurity & Privacy 20 prompts Β· Build secure systems. Protect user data. Think like an attacker. Β· 8 Structured Β· 6 Agentic Β· 6 Multistep What these prompts deliver: Security is not a feature you add at the end β€” it is a discipline you build into every layer. These prompts help you threat model, conduct security reviews, implement secure authentication, handle vulnerabilities, build security tooling, and develop the attacker mindset that prevents breaches before they happen.

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