program selection system

When exploring possible IT solutions to business problems, one of the key questions that is typically asked is whether it makes more business sense to either build the solution entirely, buy an off-the-shelf package, or some combination. This decision can be just as time-consuming and cost intensive as the actual development itself. An opportunity exists to apply agile techniques in order to better focus the buy vs. build decision. In order to maximize business value, the buy vs. build process should make every effort to leverage the strengths of Agile.

In this session, we will explore our experiences in applying Agile techniques to help in this key decision. The following concepts will be presented and examples provided from our experiences to date that illustrate how agile can be used to address buy, build or a combined approach:

1. Managing the selection process using iterative techniques.
2. Separating the buy vs. build decision/process from the product backlog.
3. Utilizing the product backlog for vendor scorecarding and evaluation.
4. Utilizing Agile estimation and planning techniques for costing both buy and build scenarios.
5. Allowing business product owners to be more engaged in the selection process.
6. Identifying which user stories are buy candidates and which are build candidates in a combined build and buy approach.
7. Communicating buy vs. build decision to external stakeholders.

This information will be shared in a retrospective format, identifying specific successes and lessons learned in applying Agile to this decision.