artifacts/intake-archive/20260622__continuity-office-intake/018-vendor-tooling-decisions-through-the-continuity-lens

Rendered from markdown source. Open raw source on GitHub.

--- catalog: "Free Training Catalog" training_id: "018" title: "Vendor & Tooling Decisions Through the Continuity Lens" subtitle: "Avoiding lock-in by accident" track: "Operating Model & Leadership" estimated_time: "20–30 minutes" audience:

• Executives
• IT / Security
• Procurement
• Product

learning_outcomes:

• Evaluate vendors for reversibility and memory safety
• Avoid continuity debt in tooling choices
• Preserve exit narratives

prerequisites: "Training 001–017 recommended" level: "Leadership / Applied" license: "Free / Open Training" version: "1.0" last_updated: "2025-12-18" ---

Vendor & Tooling Decisions Through the Continuity Lens

Avoiding lock-in by accident

Core stance

Lock-in is rarely intentional. It is the result of missing continuity questions.

Continuity questions for vendors

• Why are we choosing this?
• What assumptions does it encode?
• How would we leave?
• What memory would we lose?

Red flags

• No export path
• Knowledge trapped in vendor workflows
• Irreversible configuration decisions

Exercises

• Write an exit story for one vendor
• Identify one tool with hidden memory lock-in
• Add a reversibility note to procurement

Suggested next step

Require an exit narrative for high-impact tools.