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Custom Software vs. COTS Products

Posted by timothy on from the need-a-dozen-in-albuquerque-by-friday dept.

andy1307 writes "Nicholas Carr, best known for setting off a firestorm with his "IT Doesn't Matter" article published in the Harvard Business Review, has an op-ed in today's New York Times arguing against the use of custom-built software in favor of off-the-shelf products. He cites the example of Ford scrapping a custom built software solution for buying supplies. He says companies, frustrated by the failure of custom built software, have taken to modifying their business processes around the packaged software solution. The most unbelievable line in the op-ed: "When it comes to developing software today, innovation should be a last resort, not a first instinct.". Most of us know of failed projects using off-the-shelf products that need minor customization. Is the track record of custom built software really that bad?"

1 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. COTS seldom works by ColoradoRancher · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I've been in this game for nearly four decades, and seen the industry pendulum swing thru two complete cycles from all-custom to all-COTS. This was both in the private (Digital/Compaq/HP) and government (military & mil contractor) sectors of the IT industry. To be fair, my experiences are only in very large shops and companies. I don't know how this applies to small shops.

    Everything I've experienced has taught me one very clear lesson: COTS does not work, for anything beyond a mail client or a suite of 'office' tools. Your internal business critical applications must be custom developed. And when custom developed, in-house development fares better than contracted custom devo.

    I've noticed that COTS always seems to look better on paper, and starts off with a lower price tag. But even in the first week of deployment, that biz process you tried to bend to fit the software, just doesn't work when bent that way. So you start to loose business, or you have to modify the COTS software. Usually both. After a year, if you haven't gotten smarter and scrapped the COTS software entirely, and if your business unit is clever enought to stay afloat after that bad COTS decision, you find that you've had to customize it so much that it doesn't even look like the original. Oh, and surprise!, you've spent at least triple what it would have cost for an in-house development effort.

    But wait, it gets worse. Eventually the COTS software just can't be customized any further, and must be scrapped. Your good developers... er, 'customizers'... see the ship is sinking. Most of them jump ship to the company that produced the COTS software, so they can do 'real coding'. Now you're doubly screwed.