When to Use This Skill

/impact-analysis

Analyse the cascading impact of architectural changes across systems, integrations, teams, and finances. Uses four parallel agents to evaluate different impact dimensions simultaneously, then synthesises findings into a comprehensive impact report.

When to Use This Skill

• Evaluating the impact of a proposed system migration or replacement
• Assessing consequences of a technology change (e.g., switching databases, frameworks)
• Understanding blast radius of an infrastructure change
• Preparing impact assessments for architecture governance boards
• Estimating effort and risk before committing to a change

Usage

/impact-analysis <change-description> [--scope system|programme|enterprise] [--depth quick|standard|deep]

Parameters

Instructions

Phase 1: Define the Change

Gather from the user:

Phase 2: Parallel Impact Analysis — Agent Team

Launch four agents simultaneously using the Task tool. Each agent analyses one dimension of impact independently.

Agent 1: Technical Impact Analyst (Sonnet) Task: Analyse affected systems and technical dependencies

• Map all upstream and downstream system dependencies
• Identify integration points that will change (APIs, data flows, protocols)
• Assess breaking changes and backward compatibility
• Evaluate performance implications (latency, throughput, availability)
• Check infrastructure requirements (compute, storage, networking)
• Identify data migration needs and complexity Return: Technical impact matrix with severity ratings (critical/high/medium/low) per system

Agent 2: Organisational Impact Analyst (Sonnet) Task: Assess people and process impacts

• Identify all affected teams and their roles in the change
• Assess skill gaps and training requirements
• Map process changes required (deployment, monitoring, support)
• Evaluate change management complexity (communication, adoption)
• Identify key stakeholders and their concerns
• Assess impact on existing project timelines Return: Organisational impact summary with affected teams, training needs, and change management recommendations

Agent 3: Financial Impact Analyst (Sonnet) Task: Calculate financial implications

• Estimate one-time implementation costs (development, migration, tooling)
• Calculate recurring operational cost changes (infrastructure, licensing, support)
• Identify hidden costs (productivity loss during transition, parallel running)
• Quantify benefits and savings (efficiency gains, reduced maintenance)
• Produce 3-year financial projection (Year 0 investment, Year 1-3 returns)
• Calculate break-even point Return: Financial impact table with year-by-year breakdown and ROI calculation

Agent 4: Risk Assessor (Sonnet) Task: Identify and score risks across all dimensions

• Identify technical risks (integration failures, data loss, performance degradation)
• Identify organisational risks (skill gaps, resistance to change, key person dependency)
• Identify financial risks (cost overruns, delayed benefits, vendor lock-in)
• Identify schedule risks (delays, dependency bottlenecks, resource contention)
• Score each risk: Probability (1-5) x Impact (1-5) = Risk Score (1-25)
• Propose mitigations for all risks scoring 12 or above Return: Risk register with probability, impact, score, and mitigations

Phase 3: Synthesise Impact Report

Combine all agent results into a unified impact report:

1. Calculate overall impact score (0-10) based on weighted agent findings
2. Create executive summary highlighting the most significant impacts
3. Build dependency diagram showing affected systems and relationships
4. Compile risk matrix with top risks and mitigations
5. Generate implementation checklist with sequenced actions
6. Define rollback procedure in case the change needs to be reversed

Output Format

# Impact Analysis: <Change Description>

## Executive Summary

**Impact Score:** X/10 (Low/Medium/High/Critical)
**Recommendation:** Proceed / Proceed with conditions / Defer / Do not proceed

<2-3 sentence summary of the most significant findings>

## Impact Summary

| Dimension      | Score | Key Finding                    |
|----------------|-------|--------------------------------|
| Technical      | X/10  | <one-line summary>             |
| Organisational | X/10  | <one-line summary>             |
| Financial      | X/10  | <one-line summary>             |
| Risk           | X/10  | <one-line summary>             |

## Technical Impact

### Affected Systems

| System           | Impact Level | Change Required              |
|------------------|-------------|------------------------------|
| <System Name>    | Critical    | <What changes>               |

### Integration Changes
<Details of API, data flow, and protocol changes>

### Data Migration
<Scope, complexity, and approach>

## Organisational Impact

### Affected Teams

| Team           | Impact    | Actions Required             |
|----------------|-----------|------------------------------|
| <Team Name>    | High      | <Training, process changes>  |

### Training Requirements
<Skills gaps and training plan>

## Financial Impact

| Category              | Year 0    | Year 1    | Year 2    | Year 3    |
|-----------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| Implementation costs  | £X        | —         | —         | —         |
| Operational costs     | £X        | £X        | £X        | £X        |
| Savings / Benefits    | —         | £X        | £X        | £X        |
| **Net**               | **(£X)**  | **£X**    | **£X**    | **£X**    |

**Break-even:** Month X of Year Y

## Risk Matrix

| Risk                        | Prob | Impact | Score | Mitigation              |
|-----------------------------|------|--------|-------|-------------------------|
| <Risk description>          | X/5  | X/5    | XX    | <Mitigation action>     |

## Implementation Checklist

- [ ] <Sequenced action items>

## Rollback Procedure

<Steps to reverse the change if needed>

Examples

Example 1: Database Migration

/impact-analysis Migrate OrderService from Oracle to PostgreSQL --scope system

Analyses technical compatibility, team training needs, licensing savings, and migration risks for a database platform change.

Example 2: Cloud Migration

/impact-analysis Move payment processing from on-premises to AWS --scope programme --depth deep

Deep analysis of moving a critical financial system to the cloud, including compliance, latency, and cost implications across the entire programme.

Example 3: API Versioning Change

/impact-analysis Deprecate REST API v1 and migrate all consumers to v2 --scope enterprise

Enterprise-wide analysis of API deprecation impact across all consuming systems, teams, and third-party integrations.

Invoke with: /impact-analysis <change-description> then provide current state, proposed state, and affected systems