delivery · CAT-30030668 · rev 1.0 |
Build-vs-Buy Technology Assessment. @build-vs-buy-assessment
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Rated 5.0 / 5 by clients on GoodFirms.
Read verified reviews on GoodFirms →Vetted by Scrums.com Platform
Provider Scrums.com
Last review 2026-08-14
What you get
the numbers that matter≈ 2 weeks
signed to first PR
96%
engagements renewed
96%
to your stack & domain
Compare custom build, SaaS, open-source, and platform options with TCO, risk, and implementation trade-offs. Ends with a defensible recommendation.
How this operator works
every way of working, already decidedOwns the system, not the ticket
Takes end-to-end ownership of a service or surface. Design, delivery, on-call. And is measured on outcomes, not hours.
Embedded, async-first, instrumented
Works inside your repos, your CI and your rituals. Daily written standups, decisions logged. No status-meeting tax.
Runbooks, canaries, reversible deploys
Every change gated and reversible. Incidents get a timeline and a postmortem; nothing ships without a rollback.
Plugged into your Slack & rituals
Joins standups and retros, reports weekly against the goal. You get an operator, not a queue.
Brings a pre-wired stack or adopts yours
Infrastructure and observability as code by default. No bespoke setup tax to absorb.
Scoped, gated, reversible
Week-1 shadow, week-2 ownership, swap on request inside the trial window. No long-tail handover risk.
Overview
Build-vs-buy decisions fail in predictable ways: the build estimate ignores maintenance, the SaaS quote ignores integration, and the loudest voice in the room wins. The Build-vs-Buy Technology Assessment replaces that with an objective evaluation — custom build, commercial SaaS, open-source, and platform options scored against your requirements by engineers with no product to sell you.
The finish state is a recommendation you can defend to a board: a total-cost-of-ownership model over a realistic horizon, the risks and trade-offs of each option stated plainly, and an implementation roadmap for the winner.
What's included
Option Landscape
The realistic candidates identified and shortlisted — commercial products, open-source alternatives, platform capabilities you already pay for, and the custom-build option.
TCO Model
Total cost of ownership for each shortlisted option over three to five years: licences, build effort, integration, operations, and exit cost.
Risk & Trade-off Analysis
Vendor lock-in, roadmap dependence, capability gaps, data ownership, and team skills — scored per option, with the trade-offs stated rather than smoothed over.
Recommendation & Roadmap
A written recommendation with the evaluation evidence, plus an implementation roadmap and the decision triggers that would reopen the question.
How it works
- Scope — Fix the capability under evaluation, the requirements that matter, and the constraints — budget, timeline, team, compliance.
- Build — Shortlist the options, run vendor and technical evaluation, build the TCO model, and score the trade-offs.
- Handover — The recommendation presented to your decision-makers, with the model handed over so you can re-run the numbers as inputs change.
Part of every Delivery Plan
The Build-vs-Buy Technology Assessment is a menu item on the Scrums.com delivery catalog, available at every plan tier. Add it to your plan backlog and your delivery team schedules it like any other item — scoped, tracked, and reported through the SEOP. See Delivery Plan Tiers.
FAQs
Are you biased toward recommending a build?
No. The assessment is vendor-neutral in both directions — Scrums.com earns nothing from the buy option and the recommendation is evidence-scored. Many assessments end in buy, or in a hybrid.
Can you evaluate vendors we have already shortlisted?
Yes. An existing shortlist speeds up the landscape phase. We still check for options the shortlist missed, because that is where the value often hides.
What happens if the answer is build?
The roadmap feeds straight into delivery: the Solution Architecture Blueprint designs the system, and the build lands through your delivery plan.
What's included
in every engagement · no add-onsTrack record
deployments on real systems · anonymized| Sector | System | Outcome | Span | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fintech | payments-core ledger | 99.97% achieved | 14 mo | ● complete |
| Commerce | checkout platform | −38% incident rate | 9 mo | ● complete |
| Health SaaS | data plane | 0 SEV1 in 6 mo | 11 mo | ● active |
| Logistics | routing engine | zero-downtime cutover | 7 mo | ● complete |
| AI infra | inference cluster | p99 −120 ms | 5 mo | ● active |
Works inside your stack
surfaces this operator binds to| Surface | Binding | Direction | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source control | github.com/<org> | reviews + writes | OIDC |
| CI / CD | scm-flow · deploy-service | gates deploys | OIDC |
| Observability | otlp://collector:4317 | metrics + alerts | mTLS |
| Comms | slack://<workspace> | standups, incidents | SSO |
| Secrets | vault://scrums/op/<id> | short-lived creds | SPIFFE |
| On-call | pagerduty://<org> | primary / secondary | API token |
Boundaries
what to deploy insteadScoped to this discipline. For an adjacent capability, compose a second operator into the squad. compose →
Not a fractional advisory engagement. For advisory-only, contact platform@scrums.com.
Deployments
the only social proof we publish402deploys
across 38 organizations
+24 last 30 days · median age 11.4 mo · retention 96%
Pricing
one number · one footnoteAvailable at all Delivery Plan Tiers →
All-in: the operator, delivery manager and replacement guarantee. No recruiter fee, no markup surprises.
Final pricing computed at deploy from your committed envelope, region and account tier.
FAQ
common questionsHow is Build-vs-Buy Technology Assessment priced?
Pricing is shown to signed-in accounts. Sign in to view the rate; pricing is computed from your engagement scope, region and account tier.
Is Build-vs-Buy Technology Assessment available now?
Yes. It is published and deployable directly from the Scrums.com catalog.
Can a Build-vs-Buy Technology Assessment deployment be reversed?
Yes. Deployments are reversible with a one-click swap inside the trial window.
Who provides Build-vs-Buy Technology Assessment?
Scrums.com, vetted by the Scrums.com platform.
How it compares
vs other delivery| Option | From | Stack | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build-vs-Buy Technology Assessment · this one | 🔒 Sign in for pricing | delivery · outcome-driven-sprints · build-vs-buy | ● available |
| Release Backlog Burn-Down Sprint | 🔒 Sign in for pricing | delivery · outcome-driven-sprints · backlog | ● available |
| Technical Debt Reduction Sprint | 🔒 Sign in for pricing | delivery · outcome-driven-sprints · technical-debt | ● available |
| Critical Application Rescue | 🔒 Sign in for pricing | delivery · outcome-driven-sprints · rescue | ● available |