Architecture work is all about trade-offs. We weigh security against ease of use, we balance availability with maintainability and contrast performance with reliability. But how do we evaluate the cost and benefits of change? As architecture is a means to an end, not an end in itself, architectural improvements have to be governed by sound reasoning, and more often than not that has to be based on numbers. Which in turn implies the need for good practices for the financial evaluation of technical decisions. Here we'll explore a dozen of these.

Target Audience: Software architects, developers, managers
Prerequisites: Some experience with real world architectural and design decision (even without putting numbers on them)
Level: Advanced