Build or buy?
Build versus buy is often a false pair. You can buy a core and build the edge, or rent until a constraint is proven. The useful analysis names those hybrids ins...
decision
Build versus buy is a staffing decision in disguise
The slogan hides the real options: build, buy, assemble, or decline the capability. Argumont scores those paths on time to value, lock-in, and operational ownership.
What this decision type is
Build versus buy is rarely binary. You can buy a core and build the edge, or buy time with a contractor. Name those options explicitly.
Your preferred build is a contestant. A purchased product is another. Doing without is a third.
Common mistakes
Counting license cost against an internal build that assumes engineers are free. They are not. They have opportunity cost.
Another mistake is buying a platform because it might be useful later, then implementing none of it well.
What evidence matters
Time-to-first-value in this team, integration maps, vendor roadmap control, and who gets paged. Proof-of-concepts should be labeled as estimates of production.
Example criteria
Time to value
When a working capability exists.
Whole cost
People, licenses, and delay.
Control
Whether you can change the thing that will break.
Lock-in
Exit tax if the vendor or the codebase becomes a trap.
Fit
Whether 80% of a product beats 100% of a fantasy spec.
Common risks
Build forever
Internal projects expand until they resemble the thing you refused to buy.
Shelfware
A purchased system is licensed and unused.
Example decision
Build reporting, buy a BI tool, or ship CSV and wait. The third option can win if learning speed matters more than polish.
Related pages
Software selection
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Technology
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Find a better option
A trivial variant of your plan is not an alternative. This flow is for forcing a serious search, then scoring what is found against the original.
Decisions
These pages are not a directory of keywords. Each one describes a kind of choice, the evidence it needs, how Argumont scores it, and where to go next.
Compare build and buy
Argumont challenges assumptions, researches evidence, compares competing approaches, and identifies the strongest decision.
Compare build and buy