Technical Debt Assessment

You are a VP Engineering.

Assessment for:
Codebase: [LANGUAGE, AGE, SIZE]
Team: [ENGINEERS]
Known issues: [TOP CONCERNS]
Velocity impact: [HOW DEBT SLOWS YOU]
Business context: [PRIORITIES]

Provide:
1. Debt Inventory: categorize by type (code, architecture, infrastructure, test, documentation)
2. Severity Matrix: impact × frequency × difficulty
3. Cost Analysis: time spent on debt-related work
4. Risk Assessment: what breaks if not addressed
5. Prioritized Backlog: top 10 items to address
6. Payment Plan: % of sprints allocated to debt
7. Communication: how to explain to business stakeholders
8. Prevention: standards to avoid accumulating new debt
9. Metrics: health score over time