I have always been enthusiastic about the ThoughtWorks Technology Radar both because of the idea in itself and because of its implementation in the form of radar.

The Technology Radar is a document which gathers substantial changes in IT technologies of interest to various ThoughtWorks teams. The Radar is written by the ThoughtWorks Technology Advisory Board (TAB), made up of senior technologists at ThoughtWorks, which regularly meet themselves to talk about technology trends that significantly impact our industry.

The implementation in the form of radar is characterized by four quadrants: techniques, platforms, tools, languages & framework; and four concentric levels (from outside to inside): hold, assess, trial, adopt. The various moving technologies appear on the Radar as blips: the closer the blip is to the center, the more it is qualified to be of worth by ThoughtWorks.

The ThoughtWorks Radar contents summarise the essence of the TAB meetings, and its format effectively communicate contents to a wide range of stakeholders, from CIOs to developers.

Over the years the Thoughtworks Radar has evolved in the contents, in the graphic layout, and in the distribution in various languages; but it hasn’t been available in Italian yet. Last year, when I discovered that ThoughtWorks has an office in Bologna, the city where I work in, I wrote an email asking if I might have contributed to the Italian translation of the ThoughtWorks Radar. I received a reply from Matteo Vaccari:

Hi Tarin,

Thanks for contacting us. [...]

Also, thank you for offering to translate the technology radar. [...]

Best regards,
Matteo

On 6 March I started collaborating with Matteo and Enrico Piccinin. We did two sprints, which last a week each one, alternating translation and proofreading.

In the first days of each week we coordinated by video-conference with Camilla Crispim, senior consultant and technical assistant for the CTO in ThoughtWorks, while we exchanged email for other issues.

In the third and last sprint Matteo, Enrico, Camilla and Leticia Nunes: clarified some doubts with the authors, discovered and fixed some minor errors, assembled the translations, took care of the graphics and generated the PDF: the release candidate :-) After a general review they consolidated the final PDF.

I’m so glad I’ve done this experience. I’ve worked with kind and willing people, which clearly explain problems and solutions. I’ve been positively impressed by the quickness with which other people, original authors and graphics designer, get involved as the translation process was moving forward.

Let me conclude by inviting you to read the ThoughtWorks Technology Radar, now even in Italian, to discover last technology trends that impact our industry.