How do you keep your software engineers’ tech stack standardized and under control? Will take any and all tips on how to fight sprawl and simplify.

EngineeringCost Optimization
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CEO in Services (non-Government)2 years ago

Adopting a developer platform with se si le defaults might help, at least you can have visibility of what is being used.

CIO2 years ago

That is a tough one.  On the one hand, you want your developers to be innovative and use the right tools for the task at hand.  On the other hand, if you let tool sprawl get out of control, you will build up technical debt that could cripple your business down the road.  One method is to adopt technologies like Kubernetes that allow you to build portable applications (if you also do not allow your developers to utilize vendor-specific services).  You could also create a governance plan that says all new starts must go through a centralized control gate that will allow you to approve/disapprove design decisions.

Senior Manager - IT Governance in Healthcare and Biotech2 years ago

Personally think involving enterprise architects in defining and agreeing some principles around the acceptable stacks should address this issue. Proper analysis on what is needed and why, agreement to stick to that, proper process in requesting new tools. And of course, having monitoring that detects unauthorised tools in your environment helps with weeding out any stragglers.

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