tech-radar

name	tech-radar
description	Framework for tracking and evaluating technology choices using a four-ring radar model. Use when evaluating new technologies, planning migrations, or maintaining the tech stack.
metadata	{"clawbot":{"emoji":"📡"}}

Tech Radar

The Tech Radar organizes technologies into four rings based on adoption status:

Four Rings

Adopt

Technologies we use in production and recommend for new projects.

Criteria:

• Proven in production at scale
• Well-documented and maintained
• Team has expertise
• Low risk, high value

Trial

Technologies we're experimenting with in non-critical projects.

Criteria:

• Promising but not yet proven
• Limited production experience
• Evaluating fit for our use case
• Small risk, potential high value

Assess

Technologies worth exploring to understand potential value.

Criteria:

• Emerging or interesting
• Not yet evaluated
• May solve future problems
• Unknown risk/value

Hold

Technologies we've decided not to adopt or are phasing out.

Criteria:

• Doesn't fit our needs
• Better alternatives exist
• Deprecated or unmaintained
• High risk or low value

Evaluation Criteria

When assessing a new technology, evaluate:

1. Maturity — How long has it been around? Production-ready?
2. Community — Active maintainers? Good documentation? Stack Overflow presence?
3. Performance — Meets our performance requirements?
4. Ecosystem — Integrations, libraries, tooling available?
5. Learning Curve — How long to become productive?
6. Vendor Lock-in — Open source or proprietary? Portable?
7. Cost — Licensing, infrastructure, operational costs?
8. Security — Security track record? Regular updates?
9. Team Fit — Does the team have skills? Can we hire for it?

Tech Radar Template

# Tech Radar — {Quarter} {Year}

## Adopt
- {Technology} — {Brief reason}

## Trial
- {Technology} — {Brief reason, project using it}

## Assess
- {Technology} — {Brief reason, what we're exploring}

## Hold
- {Technology} — {Brief reason, migration plan if applicable}

Migration Planning Template

When moving from Hold to Adopt (or adopting a replacement):

# Migration Plan: {From Technology} → {To Technology}

## Current State
- **Usage**: {Where is it used?}
- **Dependencies**: {What depends on it?}
- **Risk**: {What breaks if we don't migrate?}

## Target State
- **Timeline**: {Target completion date}
- **Approach**: {Big bang | Gradual | Strangler pattern}
- **Success Criteria**: {How do we know it's done?}

## Migration Steps
1. {Step 1}
2. {Step 2}
3. {Step 3}

## Rollback Plan
{What if migration fails?}

## Timeline
- {Phase 1}: {Date range}
- {Phase 2}: {Date range}
- {Phase 3}: {Date range}