technical-research

A timeboxed technical spike is a focused investigation with a fixed duration and clear success criteria. Set your time limit, define what you're testing, build a proof of concept, document findings against multiple options, and deliver a recommendation with implementation paths and identified risks.

Structured comparison involves running parallel proof-of-concept implementations with the same success criteria, documenting trade-offs honestly, and evaluating against architecture, performance, and dependency factors. This produces objective evidence rather than opinions.

Build a runnable proof of concept scoped to your core uncertainty, document how it addresses your requirements, identify what gaps remain, and track open questions. Include performance data and dependency findings to inform the final go/no-go decision.

Document your success criteria upfront, findings from each option tested, honest trade-offs between choices, identified risks and dependencies, open questions requiring further research, and explicit implementation paths with effort estimates.

Yes. Run parallel investigations with consistent success criteria and comparable scope. This produces objective comparisons across options, reveals trade-offs clearly, and surfaces risks each option introduces or mitigates.

Proof of concepts may not reflect production scale, complexity, or integration challenges. Track this explicitly as open questions. Define upfront what the spike will and won't answer, set realistic time bounds, and use findings to inform rather than finalize decisions.