When should you buy vs build in Software Development
🎁 Notion Template: Buy vs Build included!
Intro
This is probably one of the most talked about topics when developing software.
Every organization, from small startups to big enterprises is asking themselves this question regularly.
I’ve been asked 2 times last week about my opinion on this topic. And we’ve broken it down and come to a conclusion to both.
And today, I am sharing my opinion and experience on this topic with you!
This is an article for paid subscribers, and here is the full index:
- What actually buy and build mean in Software Development?
🔒 A lot of the things that we are building are combinations of both
🔒 Should you build customizations to something that you bought?
🔒 Should you buy additions to something that you are building?
🔒 To buy or to build, that is the question
🔒 🎁 Notion Template: Buy vs Build
🔒 Buy vs Build example: Choosing a Design Library
🔒 1. Assess the importance of the 5 main criteria
🔒 2. Find at least 2 buy options
🔒 3. Assessment
🔒 4. Conclusion
What actually buy and build mean in Software Development?
As our picture at the top of this article represents, buy means that we are buying already a pre-made solution that we can use immediately. Either internally in our organization or in our software.
There can be many use cases for that and some of the common ones:
CRM System like Salesforce
Task management like Jira
Design System like Material UI
And build in our case means that we are building something ourselves → we are the ones responsible for maintaining it.
Some most common cases for building it ourselves are:
Website
The core functionalities of our product that we are building
The administration application that our operational team uses