Buy, Build, Beg or Borrow: Delivering Applications in the New Age of Software Development

Abstract

Summary In the last decade, changes in the oil and computer industries have complicated the process of delivering software applications significantly. Although the oil industry has gone through extensive downsizing, computing advances have forced users to demand more complete and integrated computing solutions. Several oil companies responded to this problem with a policy of "buy, don't build." Although useful, this mindset does not address directly the real question of how to maximize and leverage limited resources to deliver the necessary applications to the user community efficiently. This paper delves beyond the bipolar buy vs. build question to present experiences with various approaches that have been used for delivering software. Among the methods we discuss are software tools, research institutions, vendor consortium projects, alliances, and industry standards.