From 3b62ebd9eb4fa5bc26fc2c4849ff093393ec69be Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jordan Robinson <hello@jordanrobinson.org>
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2025 15:38:56 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] add technical debt registry template

---
 README.md                            |  3 +-
 templates/technical-debt-registry.md | 71 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 73 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 templates/technical-debt-registry.md

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 78c2580a2e9122f6663f6767df2842b3b3b8ccd4..82bd61841eed1c5de93616a851e9d8d9c9e80178 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -10,4 +10,5 @@ Comprehensive collection of templates for solutions design, architecture decisio
 * Architecture Decision Record (ADR)
 * API Documentation
 * Runbook / Operations Guide
-* Code Review Standards & Guidelines
\ No newline at end of file
+* Code Review Standards & Guidelines
+* Technical Debt Registry
diff --git a/templates/technical-debt-registry.md b/templates/technical-debt-registry.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..638cf950309e043c694042d5bc069f001b62ff02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/templates/technical-debt-registry.md
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+# Technical Debt Registry
+
+## Debt Entry: [DEBT-XXX]
+
+**Title:** [Brief description]  
+**Component:** [Affected service/module]  
+**Created:** [Date]  
+**Created By:** [Name]  
+**Status:** [Active/In Progress/Resolved/Deferred]  
+**Priority:** [Critical/High/Medium/Low]
+
+## Description
+What is the technical debt? What shortcut was taken or compromise made?
+
+## Context & Rationale
+Why was this debt incurred? What were the circumstances?
+- Business pressures (time-to-market, resources, etc.)
+- Technical constraints at the time
+- Stakeholder decisions
+
+## Current Impact
+
+### Development Impact
+- How does it slow down development?
+- Which features are affected?
+- Estimated time cost per change
+
+### Operational Impact
+- Does it affect reliability?
+- Does it impact performance?
+- Monitoring/troubleshooting overhead
+
+### User Impact
+- Does it affect user experience?
+- Any customer complaints?
+- Performance implications for users
+
+## Repayment Plan
+
+### Proposed Solution
+How would this debt be addressed in an ideal scenario?
+
+### Effort Estimate
+- Estimated story points or days
+- Recommended team size
+- Dependencies that must be resolved first
+
+### Timeline
+- When should this be addressed?
+- Blocking any planned work?
+- Can be deferred to next quarter? (Yes/No and why)
+
+### Success Criteria
+- How will we know it's fixed?
+- Metrics to validate
+- Testing requirements
+
+## Risk of Not Addressing
+- What happens if we never fix this?
+- Long-term consequences
+- Escalation probability
+
+## Related Debt
+- Links to related debt items
+- Potential cascade effects
+- Blockers for other work
+
+## Owner & Tracking
+- Currently owned by: [Team/Person]
+- Jira/issue tracker link: [Link]
+- Next review date: [Date]
\ No newline at end of file