Technology radar

Technology Radar

CTO methodology for making technology decisions, governing architecture, measuring engineering effectiveness, managing technical debt, and operating an innovation pipeline. These frameworks help a CTO balance short-term delivery velocity with long-term platform health.

Domain Model

Domain	Covers	Artifact
Technology Radar	Adopt/Trial/Assess/Hold quadrants, tool selection criteria, deprecation policy	Technology radar document
Build vs Buy	TCO analysis, decision matrices, vendor evaluation, integration cost	Build-vs-buy recommendation
Architecture Governance	Standards, review boards, RFC process, design reviews	ADRs, RFC documents, governance charter
Engineering Metrics	DORA (deploy frequency, lead time, MTTR, change failure rate), SPACE, DevEx	Engineering dashboard, health report
Technical Debt	Interest calculation, remediation prioritization, principal estimation	Technical debt register
Innovation Pipeline	Horizon scanning, POC criteria, production readiness gates	Innovation funnel, POC report

When to Load

Load this skill when the task involves:

• Evaluating a new technology or tool for adoption
• Making a build-vs-buy decision with TCO analysis
• Designing or auditing architecture governance processes
• Setting up engineering metrics dashboards (DORA, SPACE)
• Quantifying and prioritizing technical debt remediation
• Running an innovation pipeline with POC-to-production gates
• Deprecating or retiring legacy technology
• Conducting an architecture review board session

Reference Files

Reference	Load When	File
Technology Radar	You need to evaluate and categorize a technology or tool for adoption, trial, assessment, or hold	references/technology-radar.md
Build vs Buy	You're comparing build vs buy options with TCO analysis and decision criteria	references/build-vs-buy.md
Architecture Governance	You're designing RFC processes, review boards, or architecture standards	references/architecture-governance.md
Engineering Metrics	You need to measure engineering effectiveness with DORA, SPACE, or DevEx frameworks	references/engineering-metrics.md

Design Principles

1. Technology is a means, not an end. Every technology decision must trace back to a business outcome. "Because it's new" is not a reason to adopt. "Because it solves X faster/safer/cheaper" is.
2. Radar is a living document. A technology radar updated once a year is a museum. Update it quarterly, or every time a significant adoption/hold/promote/promote-to-trial decision is made.
3. Build vs buy is never just cost. Total Cost of Ownership includes maintenance, hiring, training, integration, migration, and opportunity cost. A cheaper build today may be vastly more expensive over 3 years.
4. Engineering metrics measure the system, not the people. DORA metrics measure the delivery capability of the org. SPACE measures developer satisfaction. Neither is a performance review tool for individuals.
5. Technical debt has a principal and an interest payment. The principal is the cost to fix it properly. The interest is the recurring drag on velocity. Prioritize debt where interest/principal ratio is highest.
6. Production readiness gates exist to prevent crisis. Every gate that is skipped in the name of speed will be paid for in incident response time later.

Portability

This skill is intentionally host-neutral. Use your agent's normal mechanisms to load the references, templates, and scripts listed here. Do not assume a particular profile system, task orchestrator, memory service, or response-handoff format.