How to use the AOE Technology Radar

Introduction

Technology is advancing rapidly, with new technologies and innovations constantly emerging.

It is essential for a development and technology company like AOE to continually improve and keep track of the latest valuable innovations. It is important to actively seek out innovations and new technologies and periodically question established technologies and methods.

But, it is also important to wisely choose which technologies to use in our daily work and in the different projects we are carrying out. As we all know: There is no silver bullet.

What is the AOE Technology Radar?

The Tech Radar provides an overview of different technologies, including languages, frameworks, tools, and patterns, as well as platforms, that we consider 'new or noteworthy.' The radar does not cover all established technologies; instead, it focuses on items that have recently gained significance or undergone changes. Items previously featured in the radar are not listed on the homepage but remain available in the complete overview and search.

How it is created

The items in the technology radar are suggested by different teams, many of which are related to the work and challenges faced by the teams in various projects. In fact, we do not include anything on the radar that we haven't personally tested at least once.

Numerous valuable discussions have taken place in various expert groups regarding the classification and details of each technology and innovation. The culmination of these discussions is reflected in the latest technology radar.

How should it be used

The radar serves as an overview of technologies that we believe everyone in the teams should be aware of at present.

Its goal is to guide and inspire daily work within the teams. Additionally, it aims to provide valuable information and a high-level perspective to enable decisions to be made with a deeper understanding of the subject matter, resulting in more informed and coordinated choices.

We also hope that developers outside of AOE will find the information in our technology overview inspiring.

We categorize the items into four quadrants, and sometimes, when it's not entirely clear where an item belongs, we choose the best fit.

The quadrants are:

Languages & Frameworks: In this category, we include development languages like Scala or Golang, as well as low-level development frameworks such as Play or Symfony. These are valuable for implementing various types of custom software.
Tools: This section is dedicated to a wide range of software tools, from small utilities to more extensive software projects.
Methods & Patterns: Patterns hold enduring significance, with many of them standing the test of time compared to some tools or frameworks. This category is where we provide information on methods and patterns related to development, continuous integration, testing, organization, architecture, and more.
Platforms & Operations: In this quadrant, we group technologies related to the operation of software, infrastructure, and platform-related tools and services.

Each of the items is classified in one of these rings:

Adopt: We wholeheartedly recommend this technology. It has been extensively used in many teams for an extended period, proving its stability and utility.
Trial: We have successfully implemented this technology and suggest taking a closer look at it in this category. The aim here is to scrutinize these items more closely with the intention of elevating them to the 'Adopt' level.
Assess: We have experimented with this technology and find it promising. We recommend exploring these items when you encounter a specific need for the technology in your project.
Hold: This category is somewhat unique. Unlike the others, it advises discontinuing or refraining from using certain technologies. This does not necessarily imply that they are inherently bad; it often may be acceptable to use them in existing projects. However, we move items here when we believe they should no longer be employed, as we have identified better options or alternatives.

Contributing to the AOE Technology Radar

Contributions and source code of the AOE Tech Radar are on GitHub: AOE Tech Radar on GitHub