The buy vs build debate is timeless and exhausting. My default perspective is to buy unless you are somehow creating a competitive advantage by building. Software development is expensive and risky. Depending on the size of your organization, you may not be able to afford developing it yourself, especially when you calculate the total cost of ownership and not just this week's sprint. Make sure you are aiming your finite bucket of cash at whatever can bring your organization the most value. Building commodity capabilities yourself will never be cheaper and less risky in the long run. But my perspective aside, my advice is just make sure to do your homework first - options analysis, options analysis, options analysis. Let facts and analysis guide you. If there is any place you need to ensure the right debates and thinking are going into a decision, it is this one! #solutionarchitecture #enterprisearchitecture
New developers are at awe at how much code they write. Veteran developers are at awe at how little code they write. I see this time and again in many clients: - I’ve had one client whose “CTO” built their own message queue instead of using a proven OSS product… Sure it was cool and I geeked out about it but it was also an epic waste of time. That lack of experience cost the company $75,000 in direct time spent and probably $2,000-$5,000 monthly in maintenance costs that only the CTO could fix. - a dev agency built their own billing subscription system instead of using the many services out there. My client paid an extra $50,000 for a really really bad version of stripe. - another client had gotten their support system built from scratch instead of using one of the many customer service SaaS products out there… ———— Don’t build it yourself unless you have a good reason and that good reason should be backed by financial proof that it makes sense. Sometimes it’s just not fun being wise…. DM me and follow RedCorner if you think your devs are just wasting time and burning daylight. I offer a free technical assessment to give you an idea.
