spike

To test software feasibility, you decompose a goal into focused questions, conduct minimal research, and build disposable prototypes to generate evidence-based verdicts. This validates ideas quickly before significant engineering investment.

A spike in software engineering is a time-boxed investigation that validates uncertainty-heavy decisions by building disposable experiments. Use it when comparing approaches, testing data extraction methods, or determining if an integration works before production investment.

To compare technical approaches, run back-to-back comparison spikes that build minimal prototypes for each variant. This produces a head-to-head summary declaring a winner based on observable evidence from the disposable demos.

Yes, feasibility testing applies directly to uncertainty-heavy engineering decisions such as testing data extraction methods or determining whether an integration works. It orders independent questions by risk to test the most failure-prone parts first.

A feasibility spike must produce a final documentation outcome of VALIDATED, PARTIAL, or INVALIDATED. This evidence-based verdict includes documented research and a recommendation for the real build based on the disposable prototype results.