You inherit three competing rewrite proposals. How do you choose one, and how do you tell the other two teams no?
Set decision criteria tied to business outcomes before scoring anything: the measured cost of the status quo, what each rewrite changes for customers, reversibility, capacity and any incremental route. Fund one rewrite properly rather than three partially, and tell the other teams first, in person, with the reasoning.
Answer
Short answer
Do not compare three rewrite proposals on technical merit. Set decision criteria first, tied to business outcomes: the measured cost of the status quo, the customer or revenue change each rewrite buys, how reversible it is, what capacity it takes and whether an incremental route reaches the same place. Fund one properly, not all three partially. Then tell the other two teams before anyone else hears, in person, with the reasoning and the condition that would reopen their case.
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Likely follow-ups
- The team you turned down escalates to the CEO, who is a friend of its lead. What do you do?
- Two of the proposals turn out to depend on the same shared component. Does that change the choice?
- Six months in, the chosen rewrite is behind and a losing team says "we told you so". How do you respond?
- What evidence would you have needed to fund two of them at once?
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