Body of Knowledge · Glossary
Innovation budget
An explicit, bounded allocation for evaluating new technology, with pilots that have criteria, a contained blast radius and an honest review. Adoption is then neither prohibited nor stampeded, and the team that took the risk is not left holding the liability.
Where the standard develops it
- TJ-3Code review and quality standardsIncluding standards for AI-generated code.
Related terms
- AI governance
- The explicit, proportionate policy for AI-assisted work.
- Aligned autonomy
- Direction, priorities and boundary standards set centrally, with methods left to teams.
- Bus factor
- The number of people who could leave before critical knowledge or capability is lost.
- Contract testing
- Automated verification of the agreement between a service and its consumers, which catches a breaking change at the boundary before integration does.
- Interface discipline
- Versioning, a deprecation policy, contract tests and communicated change for a widely used interface.
- Paved road
- A well-supported default platform and toolchain that makes the good path the easy one.
- Service ownership
- Every service has a named owner responsible for its operation, its interface stability, its documentation and its future.
Cite this definition
Chicago, BibTeX and licence →Engineering Management Academy. (2026). Innovation budget. In Engineering Management Academy Body of Knowledge (Version 3.1, GLO.innovation-budget). https://www.engineeringmanagement.academy/body-of-knowledge/glossary/innovation-budget