Technology Selection

Technology selection is the most common architecture decision and the one most frequently made on the wrong criteria. "We chose React because our team knows React" is not an architecture decision. It is a resourcing decision. "We chose React because the application requires a rich interactive UI with frequent state changes, React's virtual DOM handles this efficiently, and our team's experience reduces the implementation timeline by an estimated 30%" — that is an architecture decision with business rationale.

1. Requirements First List the technical requirements the technology must satisfy. Performance targets, integration constraints, security requirements, team expertise, operational complexity budget. The requirements define the evaluation criteria. The technology that best satisfies the requirements wins. Not the technology that is trending. Not the technology you used last time.
2. Shortlist with Evidence Evaluate three to five candidates against the requirements. Use evidence: benchmarks, case studies, community health metrics, license terms, vendor stability. A technology that satisfies the requirements on paper but has three active maintainers and no commercial support is a different risk profile than one backed by a Fortune 500 company.
3. Proof of Concept For load-bearing technology decisions — the ones that affect the core architecture — build a proof of concept before committing. The POC tests the assumptions that the evaluation cannot: does the technology actually perform as documented in your environment, with your data, under your constraints? A 40-hour POC can prevent a 400-hour migration.