backbone decision framework
The ordered set of questions -- latency, then labeled-data scarcity, then accuracy -- used to choose a backbone for a real project.
The backbone decision framework answers "which backbone should I use?" by asking a fixed order of questions rather than comparing every axis at once: first, is inference latency or on-device size a binding constraint; if not, is labeled target-task data scarce; only if neither applies does the choice come down to maximizing accuracy directly. The order matters because the three questions can conflict -- the backbone that wins on accuracy is often the wrong choice once an earlier constraint has already ruled it out.
Examples
A phone app with a strict per-frame time budget never reaches the accuracy question in the decision framework, because step 1 (latency) already rules out the slower candidates.