Degree to which legacy systems prevent adaptation. How trapped are you by decisions made decades ago?
FLEXIBLE VS FROZEN
Systems can be swapped out independently. Technical debt is managed. Architecture decisions are reversible. Low switching costs.
Everything is entangled. Changing one thing breaks five others. Legacy systems that nobody understands but everyone depends on.
Lock-in is compound interest on bad decisions.Every year you don't address it, the cost of change increases. Eventually, change becomes "impossible". Not technically, but economically.
Organizations with high structural lock-in spend 60-80% of IT budget maintaining existing systems. That leaves 20-40% for innovation. Field-state organizations invert this ratio.
Modular architecture. Can swap out components without rebuilding everything.
API-first design. Decoupled services that can evolve independently.
EMR systems with 10+ year switching costs. Regulatory entanglement.
40+ year refineries. Physical infrastructure that can't be unwound.