Chapter 8, Problem 1LO

Identify the pros and cons associated with both buying and building software.

Program Plan Intro

Mention some advantages and disadvantages of building and buying software.

Explanation of Solution

Buying and building software have their own pros and cons in terms of time and customization of software. Let’s go through them one by one.

Buying software Buying available software from the market helps in deploying already tested and less risky software in a fast manner. This has its own share of advantages and disadvantages which are listed below:

Advantage:

• Time: Time required to acquire and deploy readymade software is less and often immediate when compared to building software according to customer needs.
• Cost: Cost of buying a general-purpose software is often less since it’s development cost can be balanced through profit earned by selling them to multiple users.

Disadvantage:

• The software may not fulfill all the requirements and needs of the company, which build software do.
• Cost of maintenance and upgrades may go very high, that too with no customization option available will often lead to high spending.

Building software Building software refers to customized software which is specially developed according to unique business requirements of the company.

Advantage:

• They are better fitted in an organization as they are developed according to the organization’s unique functionalities and needs.
• Better custom software will help in giving a competitive edge to an organization.
• There is more security features and reliability as compared to general-purpose software as there is no risk of data loss and malfunctioning due to some loophole left while its development.

Disadvantage:

• The time required developing and deploying is often too high ranging from months to years.
• These software often are costly to develop and sometimes require high amount of research to accomplish what is being desired by the system.