If Your Advisor Always Picks the Same Tool, That’s Not Advice

Ask a technical advisor what tool they’d pick for your project. If the answer never changes no matter who’s asking, you’re not getting advice. You’re getting their comfort zone.

Two of my recent projects needed the same thing: infrastructure as code, which just means the cloud setup is written down in files instead of living in one developer’s head. On the first, which ran on AWS, I used Terraform. It’s the tool I know best. I’ve moved 125+ cloud resources with it and built entire environments that spin up and tear down on demand.

The second project was a small team, everything lived in Azure, and there was no plan to ever be anywhere else. So I chose Bicep, Microsoft’s own tool for Azure. It has fewer moving parts, there’s nothing extra to host or manage, and it’s easier for a small team to learn.

Terraform is muscle memory for me. Bicep meant working slower in a tool I know less. I picked it anyway, because that team has to run this system long after my engagement ends, and Bicep is the one they can maintain without me.

So when a developer or an agency recommends a stack, ask them: “When was the last time you recommended something different?” If they can’t remember, the recommendation was decided before they heard your problem.

What’s the pitch you hear in every single proposal?

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