A practical checklist for build versus buy

This is one of those topics that looks small until it costs you something. Run through this the next time build versus buy comes up.

The projects that go badly are rarely the ones with the hardest technical problems. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

The checklist

• Build what makes you different, buy the rest
• Off-the-shelf is cheaper until the customisation starts
• Count ongoing maintenance in the build column
• Someone is named as the owner
• There is a date to review it again

The reason this keeps coming up

Build what makes you different, buy the rest. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. Budget a little time for it every quarter and it never becomes a project of its own.

The short version

Clear scope protects the client at least as much as it protects the agency. Three things worth confirming about build versus buy before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Build what makes you different, buy the rest — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you are not sure where your systems currently stand on this, it takes us about an hour to find out.