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Do you also love to maintain the tools you build? That's at least half the reason you buy instead of build.

• ang_cire 3y ago
  Yes, of course. I know some people want to build something and then hand it off, but personally I love to actually use and improve the tools I make. Even with my personal projects, I find myself going back to my old projects and adding stuff to them, much more often than I find myself starting brand new ones.
• unlikelytomato 3y ago
  As long as someone also accounts for the cost to maintain a business relationship with the vendor. This has not been my experience.
• jpgvm 3y ago
  Maintenance is easy if you don't suck at retention. As much as engineers like to build they also really enjoy gardening. The only compelling argument I have heard for buy over build is "well, our engineers keep leaving". Yeah, because you are terrible at managing them - so no shit they leave. A competently managed technical team has some natural attrition but the rates of turnover I see in a lot of companies that push this ethos is far beyond normal or healthy. All software becomes "legacy" in short order if you are constantly hemorrhaging tribal knowledge and skills.