Before you invest in build versus buy

Every audit we run turns up some version of this. Before you spend anything on build versus buy, it is worth confirming a few things are already true.

Strategy work is mostly deciding what not to do, and writing it down so it stays decided. Budget a little time for it every quarter and it never becomes a project of its own.

Prerequisites

• You can describe the outcome you want in one sentence
• Someone owns it after the work is done
• Build what makes you different, buy the rest
• You have a way to tell whether it worked

Warning signs

Off-the-shelf is cheaper until the customisation starts. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. If it only works because one person remembers to do something, it does not work yet.

Count ongoing maintenance in the build column. The teams that handle this well are rarely the ones with the biggest budgets. Doing this properly once is usually cheaper than doing it approximately three times.

The short version

The projects that go badly are rarely the ones with the hardest technical problems. Three things worth confirming about build versus buy before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Count ongoing maintenance in the build column — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.