cto-review

CategoryCoding
AuthorAlireza Rezvani
LicenseMIT
Rating4.90/5
Uses11.2K

/cs:cto-review — CTO Forcing Questions

Command: /cs:cto-review <plan>

Pressure-tests architecture and engineering scaling decisions. Six questions to surface the next scaling cliff before you hit it.

When to Run

  • Before approving a major architecture change
  • Before doubling the engineering team
  • Before a build-vs-buy decision > $100K/year
  • When a system is showing reliability stress (SLOs missed)
  • Before committing to a new platform / language / DB

The Six CTO Questions

1. Scaling Cliff

Where does the current architecture break, in terms of users / requests / data volume?
  • Be specific. "It breaks at 10× current load because the primary DB writes saturate."
  • If you don't know, run a load test before deciding.

2. Tech Debt Inventory

What's the top tech debt item, what's it costing per week, and when does it become blocking?
bash
python ../../../skills/cto-advisor/scripts/tech_debt_analyzer.py

3. Team Scaling

For each open req, what's the ramp time and contribution model?
bash
python ../../../skills/cto-advisor/scripts/team_scaling_calculator.py

4. Build vs Buy

Why are we building this instead of buying it — and what's the 3-year TCO of each?
  • If "we want control" or "it's not that hard" — push back.
  • If the answer is "this is our core moat," build.

5. SLO / Reliability

What are the SLOs for this system and what's the current error budget burn?
  • Without an SLO, you can't reason about reliability tradeoffs.
  • See engineering/slo-architect for SLO design.

6. Security & Compliance Surface

What does this expose, and has cs-ciso-advisor signed off?
  • Architecture decisions are compliance decisions.
  • Loop in cs-ciso-advisor before commit.

Workflow

1. Run the tech debt analyzer + team scaling calculator
2. Define the scaling-cliff hypothesis explicitly
3. Cross-check with cs-ciso-advisor for security implications
4. Apply the verdict

Output Format

markdown
# CTO Review: <plan>
Date: YYYY-MM-DD

Scaling Cliff


  • Current capacity: <metric>


  • Break point: <metric>


  • Headroom: X months at current growth


Tech Debt


  • Top item: <description>


  • Cost per week: $X or N eng-hours


  • Blocking date estimate: <date>


Team


  • Open reqs: N


  • Median ramp: X months


  • Contribution model: <pairing / squad / area>


Build vs Buy


  • 3-year build TCO: $X


  • 3-year buy TCO: $X


  • Strategic fit: <core / context>


  • Decision: BUILD | BUY


Reliability


  • SLO defined: yes / no


  • Error budget burn: X% (target < Y%)


Security


  • cs-ciso sign-off: ✅ / ❌


Verdict

🟢 SHIP | 🟡 SHARPEN | 🔴 BLOCK

Next Steps

[3 concrete actions]

Routing

  • /cs:ciso-review — mandatory if data surface changes
  • /cs:cfo-review — for build-vs-buy > $100K
  • /cs:execute — quarterly plan
  • /cs:boardroom — for architecture pivots

Related

  • SLO: ../../../../engineering/slo-architect/

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Version: 1.0.0

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