Why do I have the feeling that many people starting projects like this get in to situations where functionality is identified and they're beat down with "YAGNI!"? I've been in situations where 'build v buy' comes up - accounting, inventory, and similar domains. Identifying "hey, we need to keep XYZ data to allow for future reporting..." has been met with chants of "YAGNI" from people blind to the complexities.
It's just one of the things that might lead me to opt for 'buy' in 'build v buy', but... it's hard to trust the sales people involved in the process as well. And... taking the time to do real and full analysis... is time people often don't want to pay for.
And... once you're "in" to a COTS system... you're almost never leaving. The companies know that, the salesfolks know that, and have a lot of incentive to handwave away concerns, or just outright lie. Once you discover the lies... it's likely too late to switch.
Yeah. This problem is real. It’s so expensive to get out that we have had to make business process concessions because the COTS ended up not supporting, what I consider, basic functionality.
We only found out years later on the basis of changing other business processes.
And vendors will bleed you dry if they can. What some vendors consider to be “customizations” is insane.
That situation is why I don't like about the software development process. YAGNI gets abused to go with the sloppy shortcut that only really saved maybe a day in creation but in reality wastes months worth of maintenance.
It's just one of the things that might lead me to opt for 'buy' in 'build v buy', but... it's hard to trust the sales people involved in the process as well. And... taking the time to do real and full analysis... is time people often don't want to pay for.
And... once you're "in" to a COTS system... you're almost never leaving. The companies know that, the salesfolks know that, and have a lot of incentive to handwave away concerns, or just outright lie. Once you discover the lies... it's likely too late to switch.