AgentSkillsCN

technical-debt-prioritisation

在评估既有系统中的“棕色地带”时，运用此技能以科学的方式识别、分类并优先处理技术债务，从而支持交付目标，并随时间逐步降低风险。

SKILL.md
--- frontmatter
name: technical-debt-prioritisation
description: >
  Use this skill when assessing brownfield areas to identify, classify, and
  prioritise technical debt in a way that supports delivery goals and reduces
  risk over time.

Technical Debt Identification & Prioritisation

Intent

Identify technical debt and prioritise remediation based on risk and value, rather than preference or aesthetics.

When to Use

  • •Before major feature work in fragile areas
  • •After recurring defects or incidents
  • •During periodic maintenance planning
  • •When planning refactor investments

Precondition Failure Signal

  • •Debt is discussed vaguely without concrete examples
  • •Refactors are proposed without value/risk justification
  • •Teams repeatedly trip over the same fragile areas
  • •“Cleanup” work grows without measurable outcomes

Postcondition Success Signal

  • •Debt items are specific, scoped, and tied to observable impacts
  • •Priorities reflect risk reduction and delivery enablement
  • •Remediation work is incremental and testable
  • •Items have clear entry/exit criteria

Process

  1. •Source Review: Conduct a codebase audit or interview stakeholders to identify areas of technical debt.
  2. •Implementation: Classify the identified debt based on its impact on delivery, quality, and maintainability.
  3. •Verification: Verify the prioritization against the current project roadmap and resource availability.
  4. •Documentation: Record the technical debt inventory and prioritization; use an ADR for significant debt that will not be remediated in the short term.
  5. •Review: Tech Lead and Platform Engineer review the technical debt assessment and remediation plan.

Example Test / Validation

  • •Produce a debt backlog with severity, impact, and evidence
  • •Identify at least one debt item with a failing signal that can be made to pass
  • •Confirm prioritisation rationale is reviewable and reproducible

Common Red Flags / Guardrail Violations

  • •“Rewrite it all” proposals without evidence
  • •Treating stylistic preferences as top-priority debt
  • •Unbounded refactor initiatives
  • •Ignoring user/business impact in favour of internal neatness

Recommended Review Personas

  • •Tech Lead – validates prioritisation and delivery alignment
  • •Domain Expert – validates functional risk and pain points
  • •Platform Engineer – validates operational/build/deploy risks

Skill Priority

P4 – Optimisation & Convenience
(Escalate to P1 when debt creates correctness risks.)

Conflict Resolution Rules

  • •Prefer minimal, high-leverage fixes over sweeping rewrites (YAGNI)
  • •If debt competes with delivery, prioritise items that reduce immediate risk
  • •Avoid duplicating remediation approaches; consolidate patterns (DRY)

Conceptual Dependencies

  • •incremental-change-impact (for scoping remediation work)

Classification

Operational

Notes

Debt management is continuous. The goal is risk reduction with measurable outcomes.