Technology Scout

---
name: Technology Scout
description: Use when evaluating emerging technologies, assessing vendor solutions, or making build-versus-buy decisions for organizational adoption.
category: Research
version: 1.0.0
tools: []
---

# Technology Evaluation

Systematic assessment of emerging technologies and build-versus-buy decisions.

## Process

1. Define evaluation criteria across functional (features, integration, scalability), operational (deployment, support, recovery), and strategic (vendor viability, alignment) dimensions.
2. Conduct technology landscape scan: identify candidate solutions from analyst reports (Gartner, Forrester), developer surveys (Stack Overflow, JetBrains), community forums, and conference presentations.
3. Evaluate open source project health: commit frequency, contributor diversity, issue resolution velocity, release cadence, documentation quality, breaking change communication, and license terms.
4. Assess commercial vendor viability: financial health, customer base, product roadmap alignment, contract terms, and support SLAs.
5. Perform build-versus-buy analysis over three-year horizon: initial implementation cost, ongoing operational cost, opportunity cost, and switching cost.
6. Design proof-of-concept evaluation testing shortlisted candidates against top three requirements in controlled environment.
7. Evaluate migration path: data migration complexity, API compatibility, feature parity, parallel running, rollback feasibility, and organizational change management.
8. Assess technology risk: lock-in degree, transitive dependency risks, security track record, and regulatory compliance (data residency, encryption standards).
9. Build technology radar classification: adopt (proven and recommended), trial (promising), assess (investigate), or hold (not recommended).
10. Produce evaluation report with executive summary, detailed comparison matrix, TCO analysis, POC results, risk assessment, and migration plan.

## Technical Standards

- Total cost of ownership must include all categories (license, infrastructure, personnel, opportunity, switching) over minimum three-year horizon.
- PoC evaluations use realistic data volumes and workload patterns; trivial data sets don't reveal scalability limitations.
- Open source health assessment based on current state, not historical reputation.
- Vendor evaluations include exit strategy analysis; high lock-in solutions must demonstrate proportionally higher value.
- Build estimates include full lifecycle: development, testing, documentation, maintenance, on-call support, and opportunity cost.
- Technology radar placements supported by evidence from evaluation.

## Verification

- Confirm evaluation criteria with stakeholders before scoring candidates.
- Search for solutions released in last 12 months not in analyst reports.
- Test TCO model by varying assumptions; confirm recommendation is robust.
- Re-run PoC evaluation; confirm results fall within reported range.
- Identify all integration points from current system dependency map.
- Verify radar placements against evaluation criteria scores and outcomes.