How to use the Technology Radar
Introduction
In today's fast-paced world, the landscape of technology evolves swiftly, presenting us with a steady stream of new advancements and innovations.
For a forward-thinking company such as Ray Sono, ongoing enhancement and vigilance in staying abreast of the latest valuable innovations are imperative. Proactively embracing new technologies and regularly reassessing established methods is key.
However, it's equally crucial to exercise discernment in selecting the technologies we integrate into our daily operations and diverse projects. As the adage goes, there's no one-size-fits-all solution.
How it is created
The entries featured on our technology radar originate from diverse teams, with many directly addressing the tasks and obstacles encountered across various projects. We adhere to a strict policy of only including items on the radar that have been personally tested by our teams at least once.
Extensive and insightful deliberations have occurred within expert groups regarding the classification and intricacies of each technology and innovation. The latest iteration of our technology radar reflects the synthesis of these discussions.
The quadrants are:
- Frameworks & Libraries: This category encompasses a diverse array of pre-built software frameworks and libraries designed to streamline and expedite the development process. It includes both high-level frameworks like Node.js or Flutter, as well as specialized libraries tailored to specific functionalities up to and including CMS and DXP solutions.
- Data Management: This category addresses strategies, tools, and techniques for effectively handling data within software systems. It encompasses databases, data storage solutions, data processing pipelines, data modeling methodologies, and data manipulation techniques. Effective data management is crucial for ensuring data integrity, security, accessibility and scalability in modern applications.
- Infrastructure: This category encompasses the foundational components and systems required to support the operation of software applications. It includes networking infrastructure, cloud computing services, virtualization technologies, containerization platforms and orchestration tools. Infrastructure management involves provisioning, configuring, monitoring, and optimizing these resources to ensure optimal performance, reliability, and scalability of software systems.
- Languages: This category focuses on programming languages used for software development. It covers a wide spectrum of languages ranging from high-level languages like Python, Java, or JavaScript to low-level languages like C or assembly language. Language selection influences various aspects of software development including code readability, performance, maintainability and ecosystem support. Additionally, it includes domain-specific languages (DSLs) tailored for specific application domains such as data analysis, machine learning or domain-specific modeling.
Each of the items is classified in one of these rings:
ADOPT — Technologies we have high confidence in to serve our purpose, also in large scale. Technologies with a usage culture in our production environment, low risk and recommended to be widely used.
TRIAL — Technologies that we have seen work with success in project work to solve a real problem; first serious usage experience that confirm benefits and can uncover limitations. TRIAL technologies are slightly more risky; some engineers in our organization walked this path and will share knowledge and experiences.
ASSESS — Technologies that are promising and have clear potential value-add for us; technologies worth to invest some research and prototyping efforts in to see if it has impact. ASSESS technologies have higher risks; they are often brand new and highly unproven in our organisation. You will find some engineers that have knowledge in the technology and promote it, you may even find teams that have started a prototyping effort.
HOLD — Technologies not recommended to be used for new projects. Technologies that we think are not (yet) worth to (further) invest in. HOLD technologies should not be used for new projects, but usually can be continued for existing projects.
Contributing to the AOE Technology Radar
Contributions and source code of the AOE Tech Radar are on GitHub: AOE Tech Radar on GitHub