To Build or to Buy that is the question!
This question, at times, haunts the decision making leadership without having a structured approach to make such decisions. Gut feelings or subjective opinions can lead to confusion and irrational decision making. There is no better way than quantitative scoring of these two options across multiple criterion. Quantifying values also allows multiple stakeholders to score and averaging the score leads a collective decision.
As a first step, collectively align on the Metrics you would like to evaluate your Build Vs Buy decision. Go beyond achieving feature performance parity and consider metrics like compatibility Speed to Market, Cost/ROI, Training and Support.
The number of Metrics should not be more than 10. These metrics are the 'Must-have' qualities in your decision. Once you finalize the metrics, associate the weightage or importance on a scale of 1 to 10.
Rate each option on the scale of 1 to 10 (or 1 to 3). This scoring is subjective based understanding of the individuals scoring Build Vs Buy options. It's important that multiple people within organization provide their perspective by scoring.
Finally, compute the score by multiplying the weight with the score and calculate the total score. You must average the totals for all the scoring done by multiple individuals.
Based on these score, announce and document to move forward with Build or Buy option.
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