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Build it, buy it, or partner? Seven questions that decide it

A build vs buy decision framework, not a cost calculator. The build cost is the number you do not have yet, and guessing it just produces a guess with a total underneath. These are the questions that actually settle the direction, including the hybrid option that most build vs buy comparisons leave out.

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Seven questions, about two minutes. Nothing to fill in first and nothing leaves your browser.

1. Is this thing how you win, or is it plumbing?

The single most decisive question in any build vs buy call. Build what customers choose you for. Buy the commodity parts that simply have to work.

2. How close does the best thing you can buy already get?

If an off the shelf product covers most of it, building the whole thing in house to gain the rest is rarely worth it. Weigh the gaps against vendor lock in, and against what it would take to leave later.

3. How many parts of the business does this decision depend on?

This is what separates a question for one specialist from a question that needs someone looking across the seams. It is also where integration work hides, and integration is the single most common source of overrun on published post mortems.

4. When do you need this working?

Time to market is where build and buy diverge most sharply. Published timelines put a focused in house build at months, and an off the shelf rollout at weeks.

5. If this turns out wrong in a year, how hard is it to undo?

Reversible decisions should be made quickly. Hard to reverse decisions deserve the homework.

6. Who maintains it in year two, and do they know that yet?

Published figures put ongoing maintenance at roughly 15 to 25 percent of the original build cost every year, which is the largest missing piece in most total cost of ownership estimates. The opportunity cost matters too: whatever that team stops doing instead.

7. Who has told you it is a good idea?

Not a trick question. It matters whether the people encouraging it earn money from the answer.

0 of 7 answered.

Questions

Does this tell me what to do?
No, and anything that claims to from seven questions is selling you something. It gives you a leaning based on your own answers and names what the answers did not cover. The decision stays yours.
Why does it not ask what it costs?
Because the build cost is the number you do not have, and not having it is usually why the decision is open. A comparison built on a guessed figure is a guess with a total at the bottom. Cost matters, but it is the output of the decision rather than the input.
What is the partner option?
Buying a platform with a real interface and building only the part that is genuinely yours. It is left out of most build or buy comparisons and it is frequently the right answer, which is why it sits alongside the other two here.
Do you keep my answers?
No. Nothing you select leaves your browser. We do not receive the answers, and only whether the tool was started and finished is recorded.