Rethinking Build vs. Buy Decisions in Enterprise Software: Navigating Trade-offs through a Structured Decision-Support Approach

2026-06-30 · Source: cs.SE updates on arXiv.org · Field: Technology & Digital — Software Development & Engineering, Project & Product Management · Depth: Advanced, short

Summary

The paper "Rethinking Build vs. Buy Decisions in Enterprise Software" introduces a structured decision-support approach to address the persistent challenges of build-versus-buy choices in enterprise software development. These decisions are complicated by strategic, technical, cost, and risk factors, further amplified by the availability of third-party solutions, cloud-native technologies, APIs, and low-code platforms. Current practices often rely on informal reasoning and fragmented expertise. The proposed approach is built on an ontology of decision factors, encompassing strategic considerations, application characteristics, cost/budget constraints, and risk dimensions. It employs rule-based reasoning and reference-level matching, enabling decision support even in cold-start scenarios without historical data. Implemented as a lightweight advisory artifact, it helps users evaluate factors, explore trade-offs, and generate transparent recommendations, as demonstrated through a finance domain case study. This method enhances the quality, transparency, and auditability of such decisions.

Key takeaway

For Software Engineering Managers evaluating enterprise software solutions, adopting a structured decision-support framework is crucial. This approach, which systematically analyzes strategic, technical, cost, and risk factors, provides transparent reasoning for build-versus-buy choices. You should implement a factor-based advisory tool to clarify decision rationale, especially for new projects lacking historical data, improving auditability and long-term justification of your investments.

Key insights

A structured decision-support approach improves enterprise software build-versus-buy decisions by systematically analyzing strategic, technical, cost, and risk factors.

Principles

• Build-versus-buy decisions benefit from explicit, comparable criteria.
• Ontology-driven factor models enhance decision transparency.
• Rule-based reasoning supports decisions without historical data.

Method

The approach combines an ontology of strategic, application, cost, and risk factors with rule-based reasoning and reference-level matching. It operates as a lightweight advisory artifact, providing transparent recommendations even in cold-start scenarios.

In practice

• Systematically evaluate strategic and technical factors.
• Use rule-based reasoning for new decision contexts.
• Clarify decision rationale with structured factor analysis.

Topics

• Enterprise Software
• Build vs. Buy
• Decision Support Systems
• Software Engineering
• Trade-off Analysis
• Risk Management

Best for: Consultant, Director of AI/ML, Software Engineer

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by cs.SE updates on arXiv.org.