Buy

When you evaluate the “buy” option, you have to assume that even though the software package you select may be designed especially for your business, it will still need customization to suit your needs.  So once you’ve made this decision, the interaction between you and the software company of choice often moves into the outsourced development mode. Occasionally you get lucky and the software package that best meets your criteria is also extensible and modifiable by your in-house staff (with some training of course).

In-House Development

In order to make “in-house development” work, you need a good team and a willingness to stick to proper software development protocols. In other words, you need to manage the project the same way you would with an outsourced development effort and avoid short cuts in the development process. You also need to insure that you are properly staffed with enough resource and the right skill set.  Avoid the tendency to gloss over a weakness within your own existing resources.  If you are not equipped to handle something in-house, a small and well defined out-sourced project could be the best solution to solve a specific problem.

Outsourced Development

The biggest challenge with “outsourced development” is the selection of the right partner (IMHO). Depending on your in-house talent and their ability to understand the scope of the project (and keep it crystal clear), you need to first engage a potential partner to develop a project scope document. This initial phase will tell you a lot about the partnership and should help you gauge how later stages of development will flow. The challenge here, of course, is that your outsourced development partner will not know the nuances of your business the way an in-house staff might.  You need to be very generous with the flow of information to your partner company, and you need to make sure to dedicate a significant team (with a large cross section of roles) from your own staff for the project.

The Bottom Line

Naturally, the answer to which of above strategies is best depends your organization’s needs.  In any case, none of them are a pure play.  All of the above have crossover elements, and based on our own recent experiences, you may find you need to leverage more than one of the strategies above to satisfy evolving software needs.

Jeffrey Cohen is CIO/CTO of PM Digital.