Technology decisions feel urgent because platforms are expensive and mistakes create years of lock-in. But most vendor choices go wrong for predictable reasons: teams compare feature lists, trust demos, and underestimate the operating model required to keep the platform healthy.

This step helps you make vendor decisions in a way you can repeat.

Start by deciding what must be centralized

If everything is decentralized, you lose coherence. If everything is centralized, you create bottlenecks. The goal is to centralize only what protects the platform, and decentralize what accelerates domains.

Centralize decisions that protect:

• security and compliance
• interoperability and shared standards
• reliability and incident response
• cost transparency and spend control

Decentralize decisions that improve:

• domain autonomy and speed
• experimentation where standards are not required

Avoid platform churn with a clear review cadence

Architecture must evolve, but constant change is expensive.

A simple cadence works well:

• quarterly: small refactors and UX improvements
• biannual: strategic keep/extend/retire review
• every 2–4 years: major shifts (only if constraints justify it)