TLC #17: Establish a Tech Radar for your Organization
In the final post on the theme "designing better software solutions", let's talk about establishing a tech radar and simplifying tech decisions in your teams (Issue #17, 30 Jun 2024)
Hey, Ashwin here! Welcome to edition #17 of the Tech Lead Compass newsletter!
In our complex technical landscape, we need a proven guide to simplify our tech choices. While we can start with an existing tech radar like ThoughtWorks', as our team grows, we should consider creating our own version.
What is a Tech Radar?
An opinionated tool to guide technical decision-making that considers your organization’s context, maturity levels, and technology landscape. It is often backed by research, past projects, and prototypes built by various teams across the organization.
About ThoughtWorks Tech Radar
In their own words:
Thoughtworks Technology Radar is a twice-yearly snapshot of tools, techniques, platforms, languages, and frameworks. This knowledge-sharing tool is based on our global teams’ experience and highlights things you may want to explore on your projects.
Think of it as a guide that categories tech chops into - Tools, Techniques, Platforms, Languages & Frameworks - and maps them into one of the following adoption levels:
Adopt - safe to consider using in your projects
Trial - that are considered ready to use, but use with caution and test for yourself
Assess - keep in view but not yet ready for mainstream
Hold - new and promising entrants, proceed with caution
It is a highly visual tool that looks something like this. Each dot/circle represents a tech chop and clicking it will give you further details.
When you may need your own?
While the TW Tech Radar is good for general use, it may not be fully relevant to you.
You should consider creating your own version if the answer is "yes" to any of these questions:
Do you have a very broad tech landscape including systems like ERP, e-Commerce, CRM, Marketing automation, etc.?
Do your engineering teams fall into a broad spectrum when it comes to tech maturity?
Do you continuously experiment with new technologies relevant to your industry and assess their fitment?
Do you have a flat organization and teams are expected to be autonomous with their tech decision-making?
Essentially, if you feel the ThoughtWorks version only partially meets your needs, you should consider creating your own tech radar.
How to create one for your team/organization?
ThoughtWorks has open-sourced the code they use to generate the radar. You can find more details at Build Your Own Radar (BYOR).
However, it has technical constraints: only 4 categories (hence "quadrants") and 4 rings are allowed.
Here’s how to start creating one:
Collaborate with your tech leaders to define the purpose of your tech radar:
Why are you creating one?
How will it be used in your organization?
Decide on the structure for your tech choices:
How will you categorize different technologies?
What format will you use to describe each item?
After finalizing steps 1 and 2, create a comprehensive inventory:
List all technologies, tools, and platforms used across your teams
A simple spreadsheet works well for this task
Draft a clear README document:
Explain the radar's purpose and how to use it
Gather feedback from the intended users of the tech radar
Continuously improve your radar:
Iterate based on feedback and changing needs
If necessary, consider developing it into a more sophisticated, visually appealing tool
I hope this gives you a head start with your super-shiny tech radar!
Now on to the must-read news from the past week…
5 “Must-Read” Tech News for the Week
Amazon is reportedly developing a new AI chatbot named Metis to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Leveraging Amazon’s proprietary AI model, Olympus, Metis is designed to operate seamlessly via web browsers, offering versatility in tasks such as conversational engagements, information retrieval, and image generation. The chatbot is set to debut at Amazon’s annual Devices and Services event in September 2024
Netflix recently updated its culture memo, emphasizing principles like “People Over Process” and individual autonomy. The new title is “Netflix Culture — The Best Work of Our Lives.” Notably, they still have no official vacation or expense policies.
Anthropic, the AI company backed by Amazon, Google, and Salesforce, has introduced powerful collaboration features for its AI assistant, Claude. These tools, called “Projects” and “Artifacts,” aim to revolutionize team interactions with AI.
Projects centralize knowledge and AI interactions, enhancing workflows. Claude can now process vast amounts of organization-specific information, thanks to a 200,000-token context window. This context-rich approach enables more accurate, tailored assistance across various tasks, addressing the “cold start” problem in AI.
Samsung’s upcoming Unpacked event, scheduled for July 10 in Paris, promises exciting product reveals.
Galaxy Watch 7, Galaxy Z Fold 6, and probably a smart ring named Galaxy Ring as well!
Flipkart, the Indian e-commerce giant, has quietly rolled out its own payments app called Super.money. Now in beta on the Play Store, this app enables users to make mobile payments via UPI, the popular interoperable network for online transactions in India.
Unlike “useless rewards,” Super.money promises “real cashback” for transactions.
That’s it for the week!
In case you missed the past articles, feel free to read them from here:
Are you a tech leader looking to connect with like-minded leaders, learn from them, and grow your network and career?
We launched a free, invite-only community for and run by tech leaders - TLC Tech Lead Mastermind Community. Click the link below to join. Looking forward to seeing you on the other side.