{"id":987,"date":"2017-04-02T17:43:56","date_gmt":"2017-04-02T17:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/?p=987"},"modified":"2017-04-02T17:45:33","modified_gmt":"2017-04-02T17:45:33","slug":"build-or-buy-asking-for-an-engineer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/2017\/04\/02\/build-or-buy-asking-for-an-engineer\/","title":{"rendered":"Build vs Buy – asking for an engineer"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a build vs buy<\/em> discussion comes up, a few questions start to rattle around my head. \u00a0I suspect this is the engineering side of my brain acting up.<\/p>\n

Skills you don’t want<\/h2>\n

Supporting a business with a computing solution is an intricate dance between several players.<\/p>\n

It is analysis of the business problem, large and small-grained design of a solution, construction, testing and delivery of the solution, all enabled by effective communication between people, agile planning and execution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which of the above work are you expecting to avoid by buying rather than building?<\/p>\n

What skills will no longer be necessary, when you buy instead of build?<\/p>\n

A business machine<\/h3>\n

A person buys insurance from us. \u00a0Over the years, as that person and we do business, a lot of information accumulates. \u00a0\u00a0This information is in various media.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Paper that we send back and forth<\/li>\n
  • Electronic text that we send back and forth<\/li>\n
  • Still pictures<\/li>\n
  • Moving pictures – video<\/li>\n
  • Audio recording<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    To run our business, we must be able to do the following.<\/p>\n

      \n
    • This information must reside somewhere.<\/li>\n
    • We want to be able to search for stuff in this information.<\/li>\n
    • We want to view this information when necessary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Now, consider a machine that promises this.<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Here is a box. \u00a0The box has a hole. \u00a0Drop your information in this hole.\n
          \n
        • Anyone can do this. \u00a0\u00a0My 3 year old niece can do this.\n
            \n
          • This is your information repository.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
          • The box has a screen, and a keyboard. \u00a0When you want to search for something, ask the question on the screen. \u00a0We’ll find and show you what we think might answer your question.\n
              \n
            • Anyone that knows English and your business can do it.\n
                \n
              • This is your search<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
              • When you decide what you want to look at, the box will bring up that material to you, as you put it in the box. \u00a0It will come out of a second hole.\n
                  \n
                • This is your view.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                  If this machine existed, I would buy it.<\/p>\n

                  The interesting question is this. Look at the skills in play. \u00a0You only need people that know the business. \u00a0And you need the cash to buy the machine. \u00a0A guy with a trolley to wheel the machine in would also be useful. \u00a0You need none of the drama that we think of as IT.<\/p>\n

                  What skills do you want to acquire, maintain, and manage. \u00a0There is your build vs buy decision.<\/p>\n

                  Mistakes you want to avoid<\/h2>\n

                  What mistakes, errors, failures will buying avoid?<\/p>\n

                  What mistakes are you looking to avoid?<\/p>\n

                  The analyst gave the developer a table of numbers, which affects a customer’s bill. \u00a0The developer discovered that the industry specifies a formula, which generates those numbers. \u00a0\u00a0He used the formula and generated the table himself. \u00a0\u00a0He found that his table and the analyst’s table were different.<\/p>\n

                  The developer asked the analyst to review the tables. \u00a0\u00a0The analyst said she did, and the table was fine. \u00a0She was talking about her table. \u00a0The developer thought she meant his table. \u00a0\u00a0The developer implemented his table.<\/p>\n

                  The developer had made a subtle error in floating point calculation. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His numbers were wrong. \u00a0\u00a0This led to a small increase in the bill that customers got. \u00a0We got wind of it only when the customer complained.<\/p>\n

                  The developer and the analyst built something wrong. \u00a0What can you buy that will make their work, and associated error, unnecessary?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

                  Communication problem<\/h3>\n

                  When two people collaborate, they will misunderstand each other sometimes. \u00a0\u00a0You can avoid that ubiquitous human snafu only if they never have to communicate with each other. \u00a0\u00a0What can you buy that will accomplish that?<\/p>\n

                  What makes a man a man<\/h2>\n

                  We speak to people within and without the organization. \u00a0\u00a0We use phones. \u00a0We buy phones. \u00a0We don’t build them from scratch.<\/p>\n

                  We communicate via written word. \u00a0\u00a0We buy paper, and pens. \u00a0We don’t make paper. \u00a0\u00a0We buy a word processor. \u00a0We don’t build a word processor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

                  We want to maintain a correspondence with people. \u00a0\u00a0We buy or subscribe to an email service. \u00a0We don’t build an email server and client from scratch.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

                  We built a web application that accepts a beneficiary’s enrollment application. \u00a0We did not buy this application.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

                  What makes the word processor and that enrollment web application different, which caused us to buy one, but build the other?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                  When a build vs buy discussion comes up, a few questions start to rattle around my head. \u00a0I suspect this is the engineering side of my brain acting up. Skills you don’t want Supporting a business with a computing solution is an intricate dance between several players. It is analysis of the business problem, large […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[43,44],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":990,"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions\/990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}