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.