4 Evaluating external technologies

Some years back, when joining a new organisation, I found we were paying for a digital asset manager (DAM) – a system for organizing and storing digital files such as images and videos. The engineering team was supposed to integrate it with our content management system (CMS) and marketing tools. It sounded reasonable at first. In practice there was no out-of-the-box connector for our needs, the assets would have to be synced with a second store already embedded in the CMS, and the way we currently handled digital assets was perfectly acceptable. The tool had been introduced during budget planning by a manager who had loved it at a previous company and assumed we would benefit just as much. The integration was never finished, being too complex, always outranked by other priorities. After more than a year of paying for the licence, the contract was cancelled.

4.1 Qualifying candidates

4.1.1 Candidates sourcing

4.1.2 Screening against key requirements

4.2 Running closer evaluation

4.2.1 Voice of Developer analysis

4.2.2 Learning directly from people been there

4.2.3 Getting own first hand experience

4.3 Open-source technologies evaluation

4.3.1 Assessing usage and popularity

4.3.2 Community health and maintainability signals

4.3.3 Understanding limitations of the free version

4.3.4 Understanding licences

4.3.5 Calibrating for ecosystem differences

4.4 Commercial solutions evaluation

4.4.1 Dealing with limited information

4.4.2 Pricing and negotiation dynamics

4.4.3 Including runner-up products

4.4.4 Assessing product continuity risks

4.4.5 What switching to a different technology could cost us

4.4.6 Evaluating contract conditions

4.4.7 Running the tracks in parallel

4.5 Summary