We learned this lesson already

In Why "Build vs Buy" is the Wrong Question I explained how you should categorise your systems into appropriate "subdomains" (a la Domain-Driven Design), to help better understand whether to build or buy. Core - your business's unique competitive advantage, keep in house and invest. Supporting - "boring" software that exists to serve your core. Because it supports something unique to your business, it tends to need to be custom built - but it's not worth over-investing in beyond what your core needs. Generic - domains where external vendors have deep expertise you don't need to replicate. Payroll, HR, email infrastructure and so on. The key message being that whilst you absolutely should buy generic systems, you mustn't mistake a supporting subdomain for a generic one. Trying to vendor a subdomain that is supporting your core can lead to many issues. This post is about what happens when you do misclassify, and how the process makes it worse. An introduction to RFP An RFP (Request for…