Technical Debt Inventory and Attributes - Relationship attributes for the Technical Debt Inventory
Technical Debt Inventory and Attributes
Chapter 32. Relationship attributes for the Technical Debt Inventory
Executive Summary: Chapter Overview
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Core Concepts
| Concept | Definition & Strategic Role |
|---|---|
| Asset Relationships | Links to Assets that carry, depend on, contribute to, or are affected by the item. |
| Governance Relationships | Links to Risks, Architecture Exceptions, Issues, and Security Findings. |
| Execution Relationships | Links to plans, Projects, Initiatives, Releases, roadmaps, and tasks. |
| Debt Hierarchy | Parent and child relationships connect systemic and Asset-level Technical Debt Items. |
Quick Q&A
Question: What governance outcome do relationship attributes provide for a Technical Debt Item?
Read More Below
Relationship attributes connect each Technical Debt Item to affected Assets, governance records, plans, work, Risks, Issues, Security Findings, and other Technical Debt Items.
| Attribute Name | Maturity | Description and Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Asset | Crawl | Description — The principal governed Asset that carries or most directly defines the Technical Debt condition. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Examples — Application: Customer Identity Service Notes — Asset examples: Application, Software Technology, Computing Technology, Computer, Network Technology, Network, Storage Technology, and Storage. Asset examples include Application, Software Technology, Computing Technology, Computer, Network Technology, Network, Storage Technology, and Storage. Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Affected Assets [Multi-Value] | Crawl | Description — The governed Assets that carry, depend on, or are materially affected by the Technical Debt Item. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Examples — Application: Claims Portal; Application: Provider Portal; Software Technology: Java 8 Notes — Asset examples: Application, Software Technology, Computing Technology, Computer, Network Technology, Network, Storage Technology, and Storage. Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Dependent Assets [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — Assets whose operation, change, support, Security, or outcomes depend on the affected condition or Asset. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Contributing Assets [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — Assets whose characteristics, dependencies, configurations, or behavior materially contribute to the Technical Debt condition. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Asset relationship identifiers (implemented through Asset relationships) | Walk | Description — The governed value for asset relationship identifiers (implemented through asset relationships) associated with the Technical Debt Item. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Notes — Do not create a parallel Asset-ID field when the relationship can carry the authoritative Asset identifier. Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Related Portfolio | Walk | Description — The stable relationship or reference connecting the Technical Debt Item to the corresponding governed record. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Notes — Retain as a relationship to the governing or containing portfolio; do not treat Portfolio as an Asset subtype. Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Related Governance Decisions [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — The stable relationship or reference connecting the Technical Debt Item to the corresponding governed record. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Related Architecture Exception | Walk | Description — The stable relationship or reference connecting the Technical Debt Item to the corresponding governed record. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Related Remediation Plan | Walk | Description — The stable relationship or reference connecting the Technical Debt Item to the corresponding governed record. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Related Execution Tasks [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — The stable relationship or reference connecting the Technical Debt Item to the corresponding governed record. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Notes — Treat as an execution/work relationship rather than a closest ontology neighbor. Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Related Roadmaps [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — The stable relationship or reference connecting the Technical Debt Item to the corresponding governed record. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Related Projects and Initiatives [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — Projects and Initiatives through which the Technical Debt Item is funded, governed, treated, or coordinated. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Examples — PROJECT-IDM-MODERNIZATION; INIT-ZERO-TRUST Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Related Releases [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — Releases that introduce, defer, mitigate, remediate, validate, or close the Technical Debt Item. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Examples — REL-IDM-2026.10 Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Related Risks [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — Risk records created, increased, mitigated, accepted, or otherwise associated with the Technical Debt Item. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Examples — RISK-SEC-00418 Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Related Architecture Exceptions [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — Architecture Exception records that create, authorize, evidence, constrain, or are affected by the Technical Debt Item. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Examples — ARCH-EXC-0096 Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Related Issues [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — Issue records that identify, evidence, result from, or are influenced by the Technical Debt Item. Issue examples include Defect, Problem, and Disruption. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Examples — ISSUE-DEF-1042; ISSUE-DISR-0881 Notes — Consolidate into Related Issues; Issue examples include Defect, Problem, and Disruption. Issue examples include Defect, Problem, and Disruption; do not create separate peer relationship attributes for those examples. Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Related Security Findings [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — Security Finding records that identify, evidence, increase, or remain affected by the Technical Debt Item. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Examples — SEC-FIND-22018 Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Related Plans [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — The stable relationship or reference connecting the Technical Debt Item to the corresponding governed record. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Derived. Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Parent Technical Debt Item | Walk | Description — The broader systemic or aggregate Technical Debt Item of which this item is a governed child. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Manual. Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
| Child Technical Debt Items [Multi-Value] | Walk | Description — The separately governed Asset-level or component-level Technical Debt Items associated with a broader systemic item. Benefit(s) — Enables impact analysis, authoritative cross-reference, dependency traversal, reconciliation, and Enterprise Model intelligence. Source — Manual. Notes — Store the related record's authoritative Semantic Identifier or stable identifier rather than duplicating its full record. |
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