How do you balance the need for stability and continuity in your tech stack with the need to experiment with and adopt new technologies?
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It all boils down to meeting the business need. Consistency, particularly in pipelines, monitoring, and similar areas, is critical. If you have multiple agile teams doing things their own way, it will result in chaos. There needs to be a consistent framework to avoid a "wild west" scenario.
I believe in the principle of "staying boring" when it comes to tech stacks. While it's easy to get caught up in the latest frameworks or buzzwords, it's important to remember that the end goal is to deliver business value. The technology used behind the scenes doesn't matter as much as the effectiveness of the solution. However, it's also crucial to allocate some time to explore better ways of doing things, especially if they have a proven track record.
I agree with Sandeep's perspective. It's also important to help developers understand that moving up in their career isn't just about using cool tech, but about training and helping others understand the value of what they're doing. The focus should be on delivering a functional product and using that mentality for career growth.<br>
I echo Sandeep's sentiment about stability, but I would frame it more as standardization. In our organization, we have over 200 products, and about 80% of them follow the same deployment process, testing process, and use the same technology stack. This standardization, especially in how different components interact with each other, resolves most issues. Ultimately, customers don't care about the technology used as long as it delivers value, is fast, and stable.<br>
From a balance perspective, it's all about the business value we deliver and the investments we receive. We allocate about 5-10% for learning and experimentation, 15% for digital transformation, and the rest for delivering features to the business. We adjust these numbers annually based on factors like tech debt and industry evolution. It's similar to managing a household budget.