Cognitive Load Worksheet

1. Intrinsic Load — Complexity of the Work

Rate each factor from 1 (Low) to 5 (Critical). These reflect the inherent difficulty of what the team works on.

Factor	Rating	Notes / Evidence
Domain Complexity How complex is the business domain?	1 — Simple, well-understood 2 — Moderate 3 — Complex 4 — Very complex 5 — Extremely complex, specialized
Number of Services/Systems Owned How many distinct services does the team maintain?	1 — 1-2 services 2 — 3-4 services 3 — 5-6 services 4 — 7-9 services 5 — 10+ services
Tech Stack Diversity How many languages, frameworks, or platforms?	1 — Single stack 2 — Primary + 1 secondary 3 — 3 distinct stacks 4 — 4+ stacks 5 — Fragmented, many stacks
Legacy Code Burden How much legacy or undocumented code does the team maintain?	1 — Greenfield, no legacy 2 — Minimal legacy 3 — Some legacy systems 4 — Significant legacy 5 — Mostly legacy, poorly documented
Data Complexity Schema complexity, data pipelines, migration challenges	1 — Simple schemas 2 — Moderate 3 — Complex relationships 4 — Multi-database, pipelines 5 — Massive scale, real-time

2. Extraneous Load — Environmental Friction

These are things that make the work harder but don't add value. Minimize these.

Factor	Rating	Notes / Evidence
Cross-Team Dependencies How often is the team blocked by other teams?	1 — Rarely, team is autonomous 2 — Occasionally 3 — Regularly (every sprint) 4 — Frequently (multiple per sprint) 5 — Constantly blocked
Meeting Overhead How much time is spent in meetings vs. focused work?	1 — Minimal (<10% of time) 2 — Manageable (10-20%) 3 — Moderate (20-30%) 4 — Heavy (30-40%) 5 — Excessive (>40%)
Tooling & CI/CD Friction Are builds slow? Is the dev environment painful?	1 — Excellent, fast, reliable 2 — Good, minor issues 3 — Okay, some friction 4 — Slow builds, flaky tests 5 — Major bottleneck
Unclear Requirements How often does the team get ambiguous or changing requirements?	1 — Crystal clear, stable 2 — Mostly clear 3 — Some ambiguity 4 — Frequently unclear or changing 5 — Constantly shifting
Context Switching How often are engineers pulled off planned work?	1 — Rare, planned work only 2 — Occasional interruptions 3 — Weekly unplanned work 4 — Daily interruptions 5 — Constant firefighting
On-Call / Support Burden How much time is spent on support rotation and incidents?	1 — No on-call or minimal 2 — Light rotation, few pages 3 — Regular rotation, some incidents 4 — Heavy, impacts sprint work 5 — Constant incidents, burnout risk

3. Germane Load — Productive Learning (Protect This)

This is the "good" cognitive load — learning, growth, and improvement. Rate how much space the team has for this.

Factor	Rating	Notes / Evidence
Time for Learning & Growth Does the team have time for skill-building, training, experimentation?	1 — No time at all 2 — Very little 3 — Some, but squeezed 4 — Regular time allocated 5 — Well-protected, dedicated time
Knowledge Sharing Does the team actively share knowledge and cross-train?	1 — Siloed, no sharing 2 — Minimal 3 — Some pairing/reviews 4 — Regular tech talks, pairing 5 — Strong culture of sharing
Innovation Opportunity Can the team propose and work on improvements?	1 — No room for innovation 2 — Rarely 3 — Sometimes (Bridge Sprint) 4 — Regularly encouraged 5 — Built into every sprint

4. Results & Recommendations

Overall Cognitive Load Gauge

Action Items

Priority	Action	Owner	Target Date
P1P2P3
P1P2P3
P1P2P3