ovo-com-tech-radar.ovotech.org.uk
The OVO.com Technology Radar is a living document that captures and provides a high-level overview of our technology landscape.
The radar consists of four quadrants:
- Techniques
Includes various aspects of software development process and ways of working. - Languages & Frameworks
Our main programming languages and key frameworks used for development. - Platforms
Platforms that we use to build our software on top, e.g. databases, cloud services etc. - Tools
Various software development tools that make our lives easier.
Each quadrant is divided into four rings:
- Adopt
Technologies we have high confidence in to serve our purpose, also in large scale. Technologies with a usage culture in our OVO production environment, low risk and recommended to be widely used. - Assess
Technologies that are promising and have clear potential value-add for us; technologies worth investing research and proof of concept efforts in to see if they may add value. These 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 proof of concept effort. - 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. These technologies are slightly more risky; some engineers in our organisation have used them before and will share knowledge and experiences. - Hold
Technologies not recommended to be used for new projects. Technologies that we think are not (yet) mature enough to warrant continued investment. The technologies should not be used for new projects, however it might be acceptable to continue using the technology on an existing project.
A consistent technology stack is often a big driver of delivery efficiency, cost effectiveness and knowledge sharing across teams and the Technology Radar is an important tool that helps us in discussions about the technologies that we want to standardise on and invest in as an organisation.
While consistency is the driving principle for our Radar, we also want to encourage innovation, creativity and allow anyone to challenge our choices if they believe there's a better way of doing something, which is why we put in place the following process.
To assess a new technology that is not listed on the Radar, please use our #ovo-com-tech Slack channel to start a discussion and share your use case with others. To make the initial case, you need to provide the following information:
- Why are you and your team interested in this technology, what value could it add to OVO?
- How does it compare to the adopted technologies, i.e. why would you want to use it over one of our currently adopted technologies?
- How are you planning to evaluate it, i.e. what will the research and PoC consist of?
- What are your success criteria?
A decision on whether you can proceed with the assessment and add the technology to the Assess quadrant or whether it needs to be put on Hold will be made by HoE with a recommendation from the Tech Radar Advisory Group1. The proposal can be reviewed by anyone, and any comments and feedback shared by our engineering community will be taken into consideration.
You should evaluate your PoC against the success criteria defined in your initial proposal and present the results of your research to the Tech Radar Advisory Group. The group will form a recommendation to the HoE on whether the technology can be promoted to the Trial quadrant, requires further evidence or clarification to support your case, or should be put on Hold. In order to make a case to promote the technology into Trial, please provide the details on:
- How the technology will be used to solve a real problem.
- How you’re planning to evaluate it and prove its value.
- What are the things you’d like to learn about it from the trial.
Trial is a first serious usage of the technology that can confirm its benefits and can uncover any limitations. The technology should be used to solve a real problem as per the above proposal, can be used in production with caution and risk mitigation measures in place, but must not be used for mission-critical systems.
If you trial a technology, you must present the progress and results to the Tech Radar Advisory Group on a quarterly basis, which will determine whether the technology can be promoted to the Adopt quadrant, needs more evidence and further evaluation (and therefore needs to remain in Trial) or should be put on Hold going forwards. In case the technology is put on hold, you might be required to migrate to one of the adopted technologies instead, however, in some circumstances it might be acceptable to continue using the technology for your particular use case without adopting it organisation-wide - this will be considered on case by case basis.
A proposal to re-evaluate any existing technology being on Hold can be made at any time to resume the process from the point it was decided to put that technology on Hold. The proposal should be supported by any evidence that makes the decision to put the technology on Hold no longer relevant, e.g. the technology has matured enough, and the main concerns have been addressed since it was last reviewed. The proposal will be reviewed, and a decision will be made by the HoE after considering the recommendation from the Tech Radar Advisory Group on whether the process can be resumed or the technology should remain on Hold.
See the following flowchart for a summary of the process:
Source (for
making comments or suggesting any changes)
- HoE - executive decision maker, accountable for technology across the area
- Tech Radar Advisory Group - reviews changes to the Tech Radar and forms a recommendation to the HoE
- Tech Leadership Team - owners of the Tech Radar, including S5 engineers who drive technology discussions and ensure consistent approach across the area
- SEMs & S4 Engineers - responsible for ensuring tech consistency with the Tech Radar on a team-level
We've initially created the Radar only with technologies in the Adopt ring to emphasize the focus on technologies which are already widely adopted and used in production at OVO.com, but we will expand it to other rings in the future.
To assess or trial a new technology that's not listed on the Radar, please use our #ovo-com-tech Slack channel to start a discussion and share your use case with others. See the process above.
You should feel free to adopt the technology on your project, but we encourage everyone to reach out to our engineering community on Slack in on #ovo-com-tech channel to validate their design, find out more about how the technology is currently used and get some general advice from others.
The OVO.com Technology Radar is owned by the OVO.com Tech Leadership, however anyone from our engineering community can:
- fork & raise pull requests for additions, clarifications, grammar fixes, formatting changes and any other suggestions; any movements between quadrants or additions should follow the process outlined above
- raise GitHub issues with any questions or improvements that might not be appropriate for a pull request
- create a new proposal, review and comment on pull requests and any proposals submitted by others
For any external contributions, please raise an issue or get in touch with us via our ovotech/general channel on Gitter.
Footnotes
-
OVO.com Tech Radar Advisory Group - a group which is formed by the OVO.com Tech Leadership Team and Senior Engineers (S4+). The group meets on an as and when required basis to review any proposed changes to the Tech Radar, (i.e. movements between quadrants) and forms a recommendation to the HoE who has the final decision on any changes to the Tech Radar. The group should meet no more often than once per month to review any proposals. ↩