Editor's//Comment
Buy or Build?
By Elden Nelson
In the March 27, 2003 issue of asp.netNOW (the freee-companion to this magazine; subscribe at http://www.aspnetNOW.com), I askeddevelopers, "What's your threshold for buying components or other technology,as opposed to coding it yourself?" I was impressed with the thought - andvariety of criteria - that went into your responses. Let's take a look at someof your common criteria for buying or building.
Complexity: One obvious factor of whether you buyor build has to do with how easy it would be to do yourself. Brian Quinn says,"Normally I'll buy a product if it provides a complex function that I couldn'tcode."
Budget: IT budgets are stretched paper-thin rightnow, pushing developers to build, even when they'd be more efficient buying.Roy Barbour says, "Typically, in the current economic climate, the 'powers'will choose to build because my salary is a 'fixed cost,' as opposed to a'discretionary expense.' So, even if the component provides more capabilitiesthan I can write in a reasonable amount of time, management prefers 'goodenough' or 'not at all' to spending cash. It wasn't always this way, butdiscretionary spending is highly scrutinized right now."
Research time: Simply finding a tool that doesexactly (or at least close to) what you need can be an obstacle to purchasing.Greg Howe says, "I know here we struggle with 'buy vs. build' and it usuallycomes down to one thing: time. The time we spend looking at third-partyproducts, reading reviews, and testing it out on a test app (usually to find itdoesn't quite suit our needs) is not worth it. We are a small development groupand our project list is huge; if we had a few more developers, we would have thetime, and would certainly buy about half the time and build the other half."
The "Cool Factor": Does the tool do something thatwill amaze your boss/client/users? That's a strong factor for many of you. SaysWesley Davis, "Too many components are functional but not cool. I wantsomething with a 'wow' factor, something impressive. To the user, and to me atdesign time (such as more design-time properties, or better wizards)."
Do Your Homework
Few developers build everything, all thetime. When it's time for you to shop for a tool or component to integrate intoyour own app, you want to do everything in your power to get the rightsoftware. After all, its quality is going to reflect on the app you'rebuilding. I talked with Mike Schinkel, president of Xtras.Net (http://www.xtras.net),who makes a living getting developers the tools they need. He has someinsightful tips you can use when you're researching:
Licensing: Is it royalty-based? Server-based? Beclear what the licensing model is and that you can live with the expenses andmonitoring that come with it.
Support: If the tool you buy stops your productdead in its tracks and you can't get help from the company you bought it from,the product's not worth it, no matter what the feature set or cost. Does thecompany have phone support? E-mail support? Peer-to-peer support forums?
Returns: Not all vendors accept returns. Knowwhether your costs are covered if you discover the tool won't work for you.
Vendor size, focus, and longevity: Asole-proprietor vendor might not be around for the long haul. Very largevendors - whose main business might not be the tool you're buying - could dropthe product line. This might not be crucial if you're making a one-timepurchase, but it can be important if you're expecting to upgrade over severalproduct iterations.
Feature set breadth and depth: Do you need acomponent that does one particular thing with great depth, or a collection?Know what you're getting, and do your best to project how it will suit yourfuture needs.
What other criteria do you have for deciding betweenbuilding and buying features for your apps? Got any success - or horror -stories from choices you've made? What's the best tool you've ever bought? Theworst? I want to hear from you. E-mail me at mailto:elden@aspnetPRO.com.
Elden Nelson is editor-in-chief of asp.netPRO and itscompanion e-newsletter, asp.netNOW.
Tell us what you think! Please send any comments aboutthis article to mailto:feedback@aspnetPRO.com.Please include the article title and author.