Technical Debt Inventory and Attributes - Ownership and Stakeholder attributes for the Technical Debt Inventory
Technical Debt Inventory and Attributes
Chapter 13. Ownership and Stakeholder attributes for the Technical Debt Inventory

Executive Summary: Chapter Overview
IF4ITThe Bottom Line
Core Concepts
| Concept | Definition & Strategic Role |
|---|---|
| Technical Debt Owner | The named Person accountable for progressing one item. |
| Asset Owner | The Person accountable for aggregate exposure affecting an Asset. |
| Role-Typed Relationships | Owners, validators, remediators, and experts are relationships to People. |
Quick Q&A
Question: What governance outcome do ownership and stakeholder attributes provide for a Technical Debt Item?
Read More Below
Ownership and stakeholder attributes identify the People accountable for progressing, governing, remediating, validating, and advising on each Technical Debt Item.
| Attribute Name | Maturity | Description and Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Technical Debt Owner | Crawl | Description — The Person explicitly accountable for progressing the Technical Debt Item through assessment, decision, treatment, validation, closure, and reopening. Benefit(s) — Clarifies accountability, routing, decision rights, escalation, and auditability. Source — Derived. |
| Asset Owner | Crawl | Description — The Person accountable for aggregate Technical Debt exposure and lifecycle health for the primary or affected Asset. Benefit(s) — Clarifies accountability, routing, decision rights, escalation, and auditability. Source — Derived. |
| Remediation Owner | Walk | Description — The Person accountable for delivering the approved remediation or other treatment work and producing the required evidence. Benefit(s) — Clarifies accountability, routing, decision rights, escalation, and auditability. Source — Derived. |
| Validator | Walk | Description — The Person or authorized role responsible for evaluating evidence and determining whether validation criteria were met. Benefit(s) — Clarifies accountability, routing, decision rights, escalation, and auditability. Source — Derived. |
| Subject Matter Experts [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — People whose technical, operational, business, Security, or domain expertise is needed to assess or govern the item. Benefit(s) — Clarifies accountability, routing, decision rights, escalation, and auditability. Source — Derived. |
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