The environment decides.
Technology is the answer. Never the starting point.
Praetorian doctrine
Principles before products.
These principles guide assessments, designs, delivery decisions and the Engineering Journal. They are intended to remain useful after individual technologies and suppliers have changed.
Understand before changing.
Replacing technology without understanding the problem rarely improves the outcome.
Measure before deciding.
Evidence should replace assumption wherever reliable evidence can be obtained.
Every platform fails.
Resilience is determined by what remains available and what happens next.
Capability over products.
Products change. Engineering judgement and operational ownership must remain.
Simplicity scales.
Complexity should be justified by requirements, never introduced as the default.
Design for the operator.
A solution that cannot be understood, supported or changed cannot be trusted.
Independence matters.
An architecture should remain valid when the supplier relationship, commercial model or product roadmap changes.