How to use the Technology Radar
Why?
Our primary goals with the Tech Radar are to:
- Foster a culture of open communication and shared learning
- Create a common understanding of the technologies we use, and their respective strengths and weaknesses
- Encourage experimentation and innovation while making informed decisions
- Improve collaboration and communication during tech trials to avoid duplicated work and ensure conclusive results are openly shared
Remember, the Tech Radar is not about mandating technologies or dictating your choices. It's about collaboration, learning from one another, and making well-informed decisions as a team. We want you to feel empowered to contribute and help shape our tech landscape.
The Quadrants
Languages & Frameworks: We've placed development languages here, as well as more low-level development frameworks which are useful for implementing custom software of all kinds.
Tools: Here we put different software tools, from small helpers to bigger software projects
Techniques: Patterns are so important, and a lot of them are valid for a long time (compared to some tools or frameworks). So, this is the category where we put information on methods and patterns concerning development, continuous x, testing, organization, architecture, etc.
Platforms & Operations: This quadrant clusters technologies around the operation of software and infrastructure related platforms, tools and services.
The Rings
Adopt: We think you should seriously consider using it. We don't say that you should use it for every project; any tool should only be used in an appropriate context. However we do think that a blip in the Adopt ring represents something where there's no doubt that it's proven and good for use within Prima.
Trial: We think this is ready for use or is actively being trialled at Prima, but it is not completely proven as items in the Adopt ring. If considering using, reach out to the Architecture Alignment group and see what the status of any ongoing trials are.
Assess: This is something to look at closely, but not necessarily trial yet - unless you think it would be a particularly good fit for you. Typically, blips in the Assess ring are things that we think are interesting and worth keeping an eye on. Again, reach out to the Architecture Alignment group to discuss if you think there a good use case and get this in trial.
Hold: Even though they may be accepted in Prima or the industry, we haven't had a good experience with it. Therefore we are calling it out to warn you that you may run into trouble with as well. Sometimes it means we think it's irredeemably flawed; or just being misused. If this thing is in use today this doesn’t mean we should throw it away immediately. Do what’s right in your specific context.