Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) applications are a part of most (perhaps every) medium to large enterprises. A lot of money is spent every year in selection and implementation projects of such applications – think millions to billions of dollars if you consider lost opportunity costs (which are hard to measure).
Unfortunately, buying instead of building is no guarantee of success. Tales of monumental package implementation overruns and disappointing functionality – not to mention outright failures – abound. These failures occur despite elaborate, detailed evaluation processes meant to select just the right package and reduce the risk of implementation. It is clear that businesses have to get better at researching, evaluating, and selecting software products.
In this talk we’ll describe an approach to selecting and implementing package software that focuses on engineering quality and business agility. We prefer an approach that involves hands-on, experiential hypothesis testing and evidence gathering over endless feature checklists and vendor demonstrations.
2. Principal Technologist at ThoughtWorks
Developer
Seen too many bad COTS software selection
processes
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3. Large software projects are risky. There is an
assumption that by implementing COTS we will be
reducing the risk.
That assumption very often doesn’t hold true.
Even more often COTS gets in the way of IT
performance and bottom line results.
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8. 8
TRADITIONAL REASONS FOR
BUYING
Software Development is Risky
Software Development is
Inefficient
Software Development is NOT
Our Core Competency
https://erik.doernenburg.com/2012/09/buy-vs-build-shift-part-1/
9. 9
TRADITIONAL ISSUES WHEN
BUYING
Deliver Features That Are Not
Needed
Bring Their Own Roadmap
Require Customisation
https://erik.doernenburg.com/2012/09/buy-vs-build-shift-part-1/
10. BUILD OR BUY?
Utility Strategic
Better to build! This
differentiates your
company
Ok to buy! Change
the process
https://martinfowler.com/bliki/UtilityVsStrategicDichotomy.html
28. WE BELIEVE
the ability to apply
agile, continuous
delivery and devops
practices to our COTS
systems
WILL RESULT
in rapid evolution,
value delivery and
overall higher IT
performance
WE WILL HAVE
CONFIDENCE
to sign a contract with
the vendor when we
can make small
changes that deliver
business value in a
safe and quick way