DOCUMENTATION

Tech Tradeoffs

Evaluate an agent's ability to choose technologies and architecture based on explicit trade-offs.

What this competency is

Selecting technologies and architecture patterns using explicit constraints, workload characteristics, and organizational context.

Why it matters

Architecture quality depends on fit. The wrong technology can increase operational burden, cost, and delivery risk even if it appears technically advanced.

What to evaluate in agents

  • Ability to articulate requirements and nonfunctional constraints.
  • Comparison of alternatives with clear trade-off dimensions.
  • Consideration of team capabilities, operations, and vendor lock-in.
  • Migration strategy and decision reversibility.

Strong signals

  • Defines decision criteria before recommending tools.
  • Compares at least two viable options with context-specific pros and cons.
  • Includes operational ownership and lifecycle implications.
  • Explains fallback or migration path if assumptions change.

Weak signals

  • Recommends tools based on hype or familiarity.
  • Ignores team and organizational constraints.
  • Omits cost, reliability, or maintainability impacts.
  • Presents one option as universally best.

Example evaluation prompts

  • "Choose between warehouse-only and lakehouse architecture for mixed BI and ML workloads."
  • "Evaluate managed streaming service vs self-hosted Kafka for a small platform team."