Author: Mike Gatman and Rob Cleghorn

In the ever changing world of design, technology and platform trends, ClearPoint invests significant time in researching leading tools, techniques & approaches, and in trialling and implementing these for our customers. We have previously shared insights into the changing landscape of technology and emerging trends via our popular blogs. 

We’ve explored the benefits of CIAM, top trends for engineering in financial services, the risks of not modernising legacy apps and more. However, as much as we love condensing these complex topics into snackable chunks that can be digested over a flat white, we believe there is also space to explore the frontiers of technology in a more meaningful way. 

To that end we’re excited to announce the launch of the ClearPoint Tech Radar, an informed and opinionated bi-annual guide compiled by senior engineers, designers and technology experts. 

You’ll likely be familiar with the broad range of subjects we cover – AI, RPA, agile, engineering, and while we intend to keep you updated with useful and current thought leadership, the ClearPoint Tech Radar will assemble the opinions of multiple experts who’ll discuss trends and movement in software development & design practices and what that means for your business. 

How does the ClearPoint Tech Radar work? 

The landscape of technology is vast. To enable us to develop an honest and fresh take on what’s relevant we assembled a team across ClearPoint to capture their views, based on real-life experiences and examples from our clients. Through some healthy, robust, discussions we could narrow in on a set of Radar ‘blips’ and their radial positions of Adopt / Trial / Assess / Hold (more on this shortly). Quite a number ended up on the cutting room floor, often because they were deemed well established in the market already and an appropriate fit for multiple contexts. The approach we took enabled us to bring diversity of thought to topics, providing our audience with the opinion of people working at the coal face everyday.

So, what is a blip? Each blip represents a tool, technique, platform, language or framework in motion, and the position of the blip is reviewed by our team over time. The movement of the blip through the rings could be down to market conditions, confidence in the blip, adoption and application. Importantly, the Radar is not a superset of everything in the tech landscape, but focuses on the trends of what is changing in the market. And, for a blip to appear on the Radar we must have had experience on a real customer project.

The blips are categorised into 4 quadrants: 

• Tools include everything from data visualisation to UX prototyping tools.
• Techniques cover practices such as centralised logging through to ‘Just Enough Design In-time’.
• Platforms include cloud based services, along with some SaaS products we’ve had success with.
• Languages & Frameworks feature mobile languages like Flutter, and easily adoptable frameworks such as Micronaut.

The radial position of the blips are divided into four rings as mentioned above – Adopt / Trial / Assess / Hold. This simple method provides a framework for determining each blip’s maturity, and allows us to map how this changes over time.

Let’s explore the four rings on the radar:

Adopt

Proven and mature for use, in a given context. ClearPoint has extensive experience in their use across a range of clients.

Trial 

Ready for use although not quite as proven in the industry. We recommend that you test or trial before commitment, to inform an investment decision for example. ClearPoint have trialled, and have experience of productionising these blips.

Assess

Worth keeping an eye on, or is only for consideration if it’s a particularly good fit for your use case. 

Hold 

May have been accepted in the industry, but we believe that these shouldn’t be used for new initiatives or further invested in. Our honest approach to the Tech Radar means that ClearPoint are candid in pointing out why we’ve chosen to categorise them in this way.

 

How should the ClearPoint Tech Radar be used?

It’s a fantastic tool to keep up to date with the constantly evolving landscape that is at the core of technology – it’s as useful to us as it is to you. 

We’d suggest the Radar is used as a touch point for prioritising your own projects and investigations – cross referencing the blips and rings with the outcomes your business needs. 

If you are looking to build a new product or commence a transformation initiative, we suggest you take some time to review our Radar to ensure you are getting off on the right foot. 

As you plan and budget for the maintenance of your existing applications, our Radar will provide you with guidance on where you might have to invest in the future. Take note of the blips in the hold category. 

The way the rings are designed makes it easy to familiarise yourself with the blips and consider how relevant they are for you – all the way from Adopt to Hold. You may want to investigate a blip and understand more about it and this could even involve building your own Radar that captures the discussion around what’s next for you. 

The Tech Radar will be updated on a bi-annual basis and should be consumed alongside our regular blogs as a way to keep on top of trends, movements and advice from experts in the industry. 

If you’d like to be the first to find out about what’s happening in the industry you can sign up to the ClearPoint Tech Radar here. Be sure to check out our Tech Radar here.