Linus Torvalds is an open source legend. His operating system kernel, Linux, has transformed the open source movement. It’s one of the main reasons the World Wide Web continues to grow. Companies like Red Hat, SUSE and Mandriva have built their own Linux distributions based on his kernal. Most web servers use a LAMP (Linux, Apache,MySQL and PHP) stack to serve up billions upon billions of webpages daily. All of these software packages are freely available as open source.
Hardware companies face a similar problem in that it’s challenging to buy components to build complex products if the building blocks are hard to use and cumbersome to connect to. That’s why standards play an important role in the Make vs Buy process for both hardware and software. Even simple things like light fixtures and sockets need a standard interface in order to be useful. Try wiring you US house with UK sockets.
Here’s the Dilemma
Every business needs to figure out what core value it adds to the products or services it offers. There is always a temptation for engineers to say “I can make it better” and I’m sure most would be correct. The dilemma is not that your engineers can do better, it’s which part of your product should they focus on to make better.
Case in Point
Before the open source movement, most companies would develop their own solution or pay someone to take an existing software package and modify it. This is a time consuming and expensive process to create a product which leads to most of that custom work not being reusable.
Open source changed that mentality forever.
Instead of building custom software, open source projects, packages or plug-in, allowed developers to build upon common core functions. These open source core functions benefited from an extensive user base and developers which allowed for a higher and higher quality product to be made.
Focus on Unique to You
Open source software has allowed companies to build upon the collective knowledge of a wide, diverse and talented pool of developers. Theoretically, this allows products to be build from fundamental building blocks or core functions that are generally accepted as being part of any product.
This focus on what is unique to you allows you to add more value to a product instead of focusing on the stuff that ever other product just needs to have. For example, all SaaS products need a Webserver to serve up web pages to the user. Most Open Source SaaS products use Apache for their Webserver since it’s the most widely used. I bring this up because even if something is ubiquitous, it does not mean that it’s the best tool for the job. This “everyone uses this” can be a real trap when navigating the make vs buy dilemma since why create something brand new if what exists today is good enough.
Take-a-way: Make what is unique to your product and buy the rest
Engineer Ego or Real Need
Nginx is a new Webserver that is taking on Apache’s Webserver dominance. It originated from Russia where it was running some of the highest volume sites they have. According to Netcraft, nginx served or proxied almost a quarter (21.64%) of the busiest sites on the Internet in May 2015.
Nginx’s power lies in it’s ability to maintain a constant memory footprint as the number of sessions increase — something that Apache struggles to achieve. I know that might be a bit too technical for your tastes but it illustrates my point — when a real need exists, it makes a lot of sense to make something that solves your problem even if you can buy (or use) something that might get you 80% the way there.
Take-a-way: Do an exhaustive search before you make your own solution
Beware the Buy/Free Trap
Open Source allows you to focus on what’s important to your product and “buy” the rest. Even commercial versions of Open Source software can be a great resource so you can focus just on what you can add value too. The trap is that buying or using a piece of software or component still requires a level of commitment that may exceed your time and treasure to make yourself. This is especially true for complex systems that take lots resources to configure and support.
Take-a-way: Free is never really free
Discipline and Focus
One of the major problems in building anything is what to focus on. Focus is such an important trait for a development team that Agile-Scrum development has taken off. In a nutshell, Agile-Scrum development takes bigger projects and breaks them down into mini-projects or products. Developers then do a scrum that typically lasts a week and by the end of the week, the theory goes, you have a “releasable” product.
The Agile-Scrum idea is a great way to be disciplined and focused on clear goals. It’s also a great way to determined what features/functions/products your team can take on. It’s a valuable tool for triaging the make vs buy dilemma because it forces a team to think about what is achievable in a short period of time.
A compressed development window has the advantage of looking outside the team for solutions that can easily be adapted to a product or feature. Without a compressed developed window, a team tends to take on more work or feel that they can take the time to reinvent something they could easily “buy.”
The danger of a compressed development window is that the big nasty, hard problems tend to get delayed or not addressed. Tough issues can take more than a week to solve. The balance between these two extremes is what drives the successful navigation of the make vs buy dilemma.
Take-a-way:Breakdown complex problems into Agile-Scrumable development cycles
Ask Yourself This
- What is my core product value? What sets my produce apart from others?
- Are there any Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) parts that can help make my product better or faster to market?
- Are their COTS products on the horizon that will make my product obsolete (think TiVo)
- What are the skills of the talent I have access too?
- Can I partner or license a component (or software) to speed up my development?
- Are we putting off major features or functions because they are just too hard? Can we break down our hard problems or go find someone who has already solved it?
Dig Deeper
- Build vs Buy
- Linux on the rise for business
- It’s not about Make vs Buy
- History of Open Source
- Deciding when to expand
Next Up
The make vs buy decision is complex yet all tech entrepreneurs need to navigate it just like our next dilemma — bootstrap vs investors. Bootstrapped companies are traditionally ones that rapidly garner customers and revenue without a huge up front investment. Investment comes mostly from friends and family. The dilemma is when those bootstrapped companies want to scale their success. Stick around for the next installment to find out how to figure out when to go seek investment and when to go it along.
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