Co-presented with Pam Rucinque at 1st Conf Melbourne on Feb 28 and March 1, 2019

1. 1

2. Top 5
SOFTWARE PURCHASING
FAILS
for an
Agile Environment
Pam Rucinque Andy Marks

3. [FAKE NEWS]

4. BUILD
FLEXIBILITY
CUSTOMISE
BUILD
BUY

5. Delivery
X
Architecture Procurement
● Simplicity
● Consistency
● Low risk
● Functional fit
● Non-functional fit
● Strategic alignment
● Security
● Commercials
● Low risk
● Support
● Reputation
● Cycle time
● Automatability
● Developer
Experience (DX)

6. SOFTWARE
PURCHASING
FAILS

7. A product is for life, not just for Christmas
Fail #1

9. MOVING TARGET

10. VENDOR REQUIREMENTS YOUR REQUIREMENTS

12. Follow your own path
Follow the vendor’s path

13. CHOOSE YOUR OWN
ADVENTURE

14. ● The vendor makes the
strategic decisions:
what to implement
and what to
decommission.
● Each update means
work in your backlog
Follow the vendor’s path

15. ● Investment needed for
customisations and
their maintenance.
● The cost of upgrading
increases as the lines
separate
Follow your own path

16. THINGS TO CONSIDER...
● Roadmap alignment
● Cost of diversion

17. Buyers beware of bonding based on bonus bits
Fail #2

18. L
A A
I
I
T
P
B
C
Y

19. Workflow
UI Builder
Social
Network
Integ’n
Automated
Testing
RPA
CI/CD
pipeline
Workflow
Pega

20. API
Gateway
API Design
Developer
Portal
API Testing
Analytics
API Management
Mulesoft

21. Content
Management
Content
Publishing
Personalisation
Analytics
Content
Editing
Content Management
Adobe
Experience
Manager

22. workflow●api management
●requirements management
●test management●content
management●business rule
engines●enterprise service
bus●databases●knowledge
management ...

23. Product X Product Y Product Z
Capability 1
Capability 2
Capability 3
...
...
...
...
...
Capability N

24. Workflow
UI Builder
Social
Network
Integ’n
Automated
Testing
RPA
CI/CD
pipeline
Workflow
Pega

25. Core
Capability
Coupling
Integration
Product
Capability
● Low integration cost
● Better support
Alternative
Capability
● Higher integration cost
● Lesser support
Low coupling →High responsiveness
Low coupling →reduced lock-in

26. THINGS TO CONSIDER...
● Sunk cost fallacy

27. I feel the need, the need for speed
Fail #3

28. More effort
needed to deploy
Deploy less
often
More changes
accumulate
More risk
involved DEPLOYABILITY

29. New Version
of the COTS
product
Vendor
Customisations
In-house
Agile
Team
Customised
COTS product
in Production

30. New Version
of the COTS
Vendor
Customisations
In-house
Agile
Team
Customised
COTS in
Production
What release
mechanisms
does the
vendor offer?

31. New Version
of the COTS
Provider
Customisations
In-house
Agile
Team
Customised
COTS in
Production
Let’s park this
for now, we’ll
come back to it.

32. New Version
of the COTS
Vendor
Customisations
In-house
Agile
Team
Customised
COTS in
Production

33. Automated
Tests/Checks
Build
Custom
Package
Exploratory Tests
Deploy to
Test Env

34. ● Standard configuration
management tools
● Integration with the
command line
● Elastic computing support
● Runs on commodity
hardware

35. THINGS TO CONSIDER...
● Level of automation

36. Do you have a test for that?
Fail #4

37. Unit
Integration
Functional
(automated)
Exploratory
(manual)
Unit testing > Functional testing

38. Web > Native desktop

39. Human HTML > machine HTML

40. $
Free test usage > $$$ test usage

41. THINGS TO CONSIDER...
● Customisation need testing

42. Won’t someone please think of the developers!
Fail #5

43. REMOVE FRICTION

44. CUSTOM
STANDARD

45. TALENT POOL

46. CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

47. THINGS TO CONSIDER...
● Standard development
ecosystem
● Technical skill set required

48. CONCLUSION

50. 1 3 5
2 4
Future fit risk
Tightly
coupled
architecture
Deployment
friction
Skill scarcity
Test support

51. Architecture Procurement Delivery
● Simplicity
● Consistency
● Low risk
● Functional fit
● Non-functional fit
● Strategic alignment
● Security
● Commercials
● Low risk
● Support
● Reputation
● Cycle time
● Automatability
● Developer
Experience (DX)
X
✔

52. The
End

53. 65