This port is part of the mini-series How To Research Tools. Last week we have created our list of tools. But Its long! There is no way we will you will be able to check them all! That why Today we are going to talk about Tool Triage aka how to select tools with potential.

We need to narrow our selection.

I propose creating the”next time” list and you will move the tool that we decided not to check there. I suggest adding comment why you didn’t check them – it will help you in future.

Traige time!

Ask your self this yes-no questions – Move tools with almost no answers to the „maybe later list”

• Can this tool help you with your current problems?
• Is this tool still getting updated? – Legacy tools may have a big problem with compatibility.
• Is it free or has a free trial/demo?
• Are there any tutorial, presentations? – it’s hard to learn if you have no starting point.
• Do you find this tool interesting? – If not maybe its not for you yet.
• Do you think this tool will help you solve the problem you expect to see in future? – If it can’t help you with the current problem and cannot help with future ones it is not for you.
• Take a look at its UI do you manage to handle it? – especially important for open source tools lost of them have high entry cost due to poor UI.

There is much more question you can use to narrow down your list. But usually, after asking those I am left with small enough number (2-3) to start actually playing with them.  We will do this next time.

And what about you? Do you have some questions that could help you triage the number of tools to check?