How do I keep modernization from being the first thing cut when deadlines slip?

Make capacity a guardrail (e.g., 20% minimum) and tie it to portfolio‑level outcomes (SLOs, MTTR, deprecation milestones). Publish a scorecard and review it in the same forum as revenue and roadmap. If it’s visible and budgeted, it survives crunch time.

Do I need a new steering committee?

Probably not. You need a monthly Portfolio Council with real budget authority and a weekly ADR triage. Keep both short, artifact‑driven, and with decision SLAs. Replace gatekeeping with policy‑as‑code where possible.

What if Security or Compliance slows everything down?

Pull them into the Portfolio Council and codify their requirements with `OPA`, `Kyverno`, or `Conftest`. Pre‑approve golden paths so teams don’t wait for ticket responses. In regulated orgs, we’ve cut review time 50% with codified controls.

We’re mid‑migration and incidents are up. Pause or push through?

Use SLO burn as the circuit breaker. If the new path is burning error budget, pause rollouts via `Argo Rollouts`, fix, and resume. Don’t revert the strategy; adjust the sequence. Product Sync makes that call bi‑weekly using the dashboard, not gut feel.

How do I prove ROI to Finance?

Track infra cost per 1k requests, time to first deploy for new services, and incident MTTR deltas. Attach budget to Waves with start/stop dates. Show how deprecations eliminate fixed costs (e.g., on‑prem licenses, self‑hosted message brokers).

Culture · Nov 2, 2025 · 10 minute read

The Cadence That Stops “Modernization vs. Roadmap” Knife Fights

How to set decision rhythms that keep platform upgrades and AI-era rewrites moving without blowing your product commitments.

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The Cadence That Stops “Modernization vs. Roadmap” Knife Fights

Key takeaways

Implementation checklist