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Start with reuse, then compare configured products, and build only when a documented gap justifies owning the full lifecycle. A sound government-software decision is not a contest between a development budget and a licence quote. It weighs user outcomes, security, interoperability, capability, switching effort and every cost from discovery through retirement. Search other public bodies for a service, platform, component or open-source project first. If no suitable option exists, test commercial and open-source products and configure them before commissioning bespoke code. Choose build when the mission is genuinely distinctive, suppliers cannot meet essential scale or integration needs, or the organisation can sustain engineering, security and operations for the product’s entire life. A hybrid—reusing a shared platform while buying or building a specialised component—is often the most proportionate answer.
What decision should a government team make first?
Define the user and mission need before discussing technologies. The purchasing strategy should connect the user problem to measurable outcomes, constraints, the build-or-buy method and contractual limits. UK Government Digital Service guidance says, “Your purchasing strategy must show you’ve considered commercial and technology aspects, and contractual limitations.”
Record the need in measurable terms
- Identify primary users, assisted-digital users, staff roles and affected third parties.
- Describe the service outcome, not a preferred implementation. For example, specify the time to issue a permit, accuracy target or maximum queue rather than “a new portal”.
- Set non-negotiable constraints: legislation, data classification, accessibility, language, residency, retention, audit and records-management rules.
- Define service levels, peak and seasonal demand, resilience objectives, recovery time and recovery point.
- State integration, identity, payment, notification and data-exchange requirements, including standards that must be supported.
- Write assumptions about ownership, funding, staffing and the expected retirement or replacement date.
Separate essential requirements from preferences
Classify each requirement as legally essential, operationally essential, desirable or negotiable. This prevents a familiar process or an internal preference from forcing an expensive custom build. For every deviation from a product’s standard workflow, ask whether the rule is truly mandatory, whether the process can change, and what the deviation will cost to maintain through upgrades.
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How do you search for a reusable government solution?
Reuse is the first gate, not a box to tick after a solution has already been designed. NHS England guidance says digital services should demonstrate that they sought to reuse existing solutions before delivering new ones. Reuse can shorten delivery, avoid duplicate spending and reduce environmental impact, but only if the adopting organisation can operate the result safely.
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Run a structured reuse search
- Inventory likely owners. Search central-government, local-government, health and other public-sector catalogues, architecture repositories and communities of practice. Ask commercial and technology teams which services are already funded.
- Request evidence, not a slide deck. Obtain service documentation, architecture diagrams, data models, API specifications, threat assessments, accessibility results, incident history, operating costs and the product roadmap.
- Check fitness in your context. Test journeys with representative users and data. Verify security controls, identity integration, retention, hosting location, resilience, throughput, accessibility and language support.
- Confirm the long-term owner. Establish who accepts defects, funds upgrades, approves changes, responds to incidents and decides when the shared service will be retired.
- Price adoption work. Include integration, data cleansing, remediation, migration, training, local support and any contribution required by the owning body.
- Document the decision. Record candidates considered, gaps, rejected options, assumptions and the evidence supporting the selected route.
A shared dependency is not automatically free or low risk. If the owner has an uncertain roadmap, weak documentation or no service-level commitment, the apparent saving may be outweighed by remediation and contingency costs.
When should you buy a commercial or open-source product?
Buying is generally appropriate when a product meets most user needs, can be configured without damaging its upgrade path, and has credible expertise and support available. Assess commercial and open-source products in the same outcome-based process; the ownership and cost profiles differ, but neither is risk-free.
Evaluate products against a weighted scorecard
- Functional fit: score standard workflows first, then configuration and extension options. Treat custom code as a liability with a recurring cost.
- Technical fit: verify APIs, identity protocols, data formats, eventing, observability, deployment models and integration limits.
- Security and privacy: review secure-development evidence, vulnerability disclosure, patch timelines, encryption, logging, privileged access and incident notification.
- Service quality: test performance at forecast peak, resilience, accessibility, support response and recovery procedures.
- Commercial durability: examine pricing units, renewal terms, indexation, minimum commitments, subcontractors, ownership changes and supplier concentration.
- Exit feasibility: test a sample data export, document transformations and estimate the effort to operate a replacement in parallel.
Configuration versus customisation
Configuration changes supported settings, forms, rules or workflows while remaining within the product’s standard release path. Customisation alters source code, creates a private fork or depends on undocumented interfaces. Require a written business case for each custom element, including an upgrade impact, security review, test burden and removal plan. A process change that eliminates a custom feature is often cheaper than carrying it for a decade.
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Build only after reuse and product options have failed a documented test. A build case is strongest when the user need is rare or strategically distinctive, available products cannot meet essential scale, adaptation or interoperability requirements, or no supplier can provide a viable service. It is also necessary when the organisation can provide durable product, engineering, security, data and operational capability rather than a one-off project team.
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Tests a build proposal must pass
- Uniqueness: explain why the mission or legal context cannot be served by an existing pattern.
- Market failure: show which products and shared services were assessed, their material gaps and why those gaps cannot be closed through configuration or process change.
- Capability: name accountable product leadership and the teams that will run, secure, monitor, support and improve the service after launch.
- Scale and integration: provide tested assumptions for volumes, latency, resilience and interfaces rather than relying on a future supplier promise.
- Lifecycle funding: reserve money and people for discovery, delivery, operations, security patches, upgrades, technical debt, retraining and retirement.
- Reuse and openness: plan modular components, open interfaces and documentation so future teams can adopt or replace parts.
A “buy-to-build” specialist contract does not transfer accountability. The public body still needs internal product ownership, architecture oversight, acceptance criteria, data authority and an exit strategy.
What is the difference between reuse, buy and build?
The three routes trade speed, control and responsibility differently. Use the matrix as a starting point, then validate each cell with evidence from your service context.
| Axis | Reuse | Buy | Build |
|---|---|---|---|
| User fit | Existing journeys may be close; gaps must be validated. | Strong for common needs when the product meets most requirements. | Strongest for unique mission needs. |
| Time to value | Often fastest when documentation and ownership are sound. | Usually faster than bespoke delivery, subject to procurement and configuration. | Requires discovery, delivery, operation and continuous improvement. |
| Cost profile | Can remove duplication, but integration and remediation still count. | Includes subscription or licence, configuration, integration, support, upgrades and exit. | Includes product teams, platforms, operations, security, maintenance and retirement. |
| Control and flexibility | Depends on the owner’s roadmap and governance. | Depends on contract, APIs, standards and configuration limits. | Highest control, with highest responsibility. |
| Required capability | Ability to adopt and operate another team’s service. | Supplier-management, configuration and product expertise. | Durable engineering, security, product and operations capability. |
| Lock-in and exit | Shared dependency can still create concentration risk. | Assess switching effort, portability, contract terms and supplier concentration. | Assess internal technology concentration and staff continuity. |
| Security and compliance | Revalidate controls in the new context. | Contract for assurance, patching, incident response and audit rights. | Fund and operate the complete security lifecycle. |
US federal guidance lists performance, total lifecycle cost, security and privacy, interoperability, ability to share or reuse, resources required to switch vendors and quality support among the factors to consider. These factors are useful even when your procurement jurisdiction is different.
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Use a lifecycle model, not a purchase-price comparison. Canada’s guidance warns that open-source software is not completely free and that migration, exit, transition and support costs belong in total cost of ownership. UK assessment guidance likewise cautions that a purchase-price view omits in-life change and end-of-life migration.
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Build a cost model by phase
| Phase | Costs to include | Questions to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Discover and procure | User research, architecture, assurance, procurement and legal work | How much analysis is needed to reduce uncertainty before commitment? |
| Implement | Licences or subscriptions, configuration, customisation, integration, hosting, migration and testing | Which costs are one-time, usage-based or recurring? |
| Run | Operations, monitoring, support, service management, training, accessibility and data stewardship | What internal roles remain necessary after supplier handover? |
| Change | Security patches, upgrades, regulatory changes, performance scaling and new integrations | What is included in support, and what triggers extra charges? |
| Exit | Data extraction, transformation, transition, parallel running, retraining and decommissioning | Can you prove the export works before signing a renewal? |
| Replacement | Re-procurement, replacement delivery and temporary dual operation | What happens if the owner, supplier or project team disappears? |
Use scenarios instead of one optimistic forecast
Model at least low, expected and high demand; a short, expected and extended service life; and different rates of change. Discounting may be required by your finance rules, but do not hide uncertainty behind a single net-present-value figure. Show sensitivity to user numbers, data volume, integration count, staffing rates, inflation, renewal prices and the date of exit. No universal percentage identifies when build, buy or reuse is cheapest, so the defensible answer is a project-specific should-cost model with explicit assumptions.
Is open-source software really cheaper?
Open source can reduce duplicated development and permit modification and sharing, but “no licence fee” is not the same as low total cost. Evaluate the project, the operating model and the exit path together.
Checks for an open-source candidate
- Licence obligations, attribution, patent terms and compatibility with your distribution model.
- Adoption, maintainer diversity, governance, release cadence and vulnerability-disclosure practice.
- Availability of security patches, supported versions, documentation, training and commercial support.
- Performance, scalability, accessibility, interoperability and ease of integration.
- Cost of adapting the code, maintaining a fork, contributing upstream and recruiting specialists.
- Data portability and the practical effort to replace the component or reconstruct its build environment.
GOV.UK guidance asks whether an open-source solution meets user needs, what initial and ongoing costs exist, whether training is required, how widely it is adopted, whether it is maintained, how secure and scalable it is, whether the licence fits and whether support or a warranty is available. The DDaT Playbook describes an expectation that government software and code be open source by default, with open and interoperable software supporting documentation, maintenance and reuse; an exception still needs a defensible rationale.
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Commercial and technology teams should agree the operating model before a contract is awarded. Allocate each risk to the party best able to manage it, make the post-delivery product owner explicit and prevent a temporary project from creating an unmanaged legacy service.
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Put these terms in the contract or collaboration agreement
- Clear service-level measures, service credits or remedies, maintenance windows and recovery objectives.
- Security responsibilities, patch deadlines, vulnerability disclosure, incident notification, audit rights and subcontractor controls.
- API access, open standards, machine-readable data and documentation delivered in usable formats.
- Data ownership, regular export tests, retention and deletion duties, and assistance during transition.
- Source-code access, escrow or step-in rights where failure, abandonment or national-interest concerns justify them.
- Transparent pricing for usage growth, optional modules, support tiers, custom work and renewal.
- Change-control rules that distinguish configuration, custom development and breaking changes.
- Exit assistance, knowledge transfer, migration support, parallel running and decommissioning obligations.
Ask suppliers and shared-service owners to demonstrate these controls. A promise that data is “portable” is weaker than a witnessed export into a test environment.
How can you avoid vendor and platform lock-in?
Lock-in is the cost and risk of being unable to change provider, platform or internal team without unacceptable disruption. Reduce it at design time rather than waiting for renewal.
- Use open, documented interfaces and avoid proprietary data formats when a standards-based alternative meets the need.
- Keep an independent data model and maintain a current catalogue of fields, lineage, retention and quality rules.
- Separate business rules from replaceable presentation, integration and infrastructure layers.
- Require automated export and restore tests on a schedule, not only at contract end.
- Maintain architecture, runbooks, threat models, dependency inventories and build instructions in repositories your organisation controls.
- Set renewal and re-procurement decision dates early enough to run a competitive process and migration.
- Track concentration risk across suppliers, cloud services, specialist skills and shared public platforms.
Which route fits common government situations?
Use these patterns to challenge assumptions; they are not substitutes for the scored assessment.
Reuse is usually strongest when
- Another public body serves a similar user group with proven journeys and available capacity.
- The owner offers documentation, support, a stable roadmap and an agreed security boundary.
- Your differences are limited to configuration, content, permissions or integration.
Buy is usually strongest when
- The capability is common across sectors and several products meet the essential requirements.
- Time to value matters and the organisation can manage configuration and supplier performance.
- A competitive market offers credible support, transparent pricing and workable exit terms.
Build is usually strongest when
- The service embodies a distinctive policy or operational model that products cannot support.
- Scale, latency, interoperability or sovereignty requirements exceed available products.
- The organisation can fund and retain the multidisciplinary capability for the service life.
A hybrid is usually strongest when
- A shared identity, payments, hosting or case-management platform can be reused while a specialised rules engine or user journey is developed.
- Commodity components are bought or reused and only the differentiating layer is built.
- Interfaces are stable enough to replace one component without rewriting the service.
What is a practical decision process and approval gate?
Run the following sequence as a short, evidence-led assessment. Record a decision and owner at every gate so the preferred route can be revisited when facts change.
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- Frame the outcome: approve the user need, measurable benefits, constraints and retirement assumption.
- Map the landscape: identify reusable public services, components, open-source projects and commercial categories.
- Test reuse: obtain evidence, run a fit-gap assessment and confirm ownership, security and operating commitments.
- Test products: run scripted demonstrations or proofs of concept using representative data and peak-load assumptions.
- Challenge divergence: have policy and operational owners justify every must-have that drives custom work.
- Build the should-cost model: compare lifecycle costs, capability, risk, time, switching effort and benefits under multiple scenarios.
- Approve the operating model: name the product owner, service team, security authority, data owner, budget holder and escalation route.
- Contract and assure: secure standards, export, audit, security, support and exit terms; define acceptance tests before delivery.
- Reassess: repeat the comparison at renewal, major upgrade, technology refresh and end-of-contract points.
What are the most common mistakes?
- Starting with a solution: a preferred platform is selected before the user problem is measurable. Fix: approve outcomes and constraints first.
- Calling reuse free: integration, data remediation and local support are omitted. Fix: price adoption and the shared owner’s obligations.
- Comparing licence prices: operations, upgrades and exit are absent from the spreadsheet. Fix: use the phase-based lifecycle model.
- Over-customising a product: private code makes upgrades risky. Fix: challenge the requirement and record the cost of each divergence.
- Treating open source as unsupported: a project is adopted without a patch, maintainer or skills plan. Fix: assess governance and fund support.
- Outsourcing accountability: the contract assumes the supplier owns product decisions forever. Fix: retain an internal product owner and technical authority.
- Planning exit too late: exports and documentation are discovered to be incomplete at renewal. Fix: test portability during procurement and periodically in operation.
- Ignoring staff continuity: a bespoke service depends on a few people. Fix: document systems, cross-train teams and budget for retention or replacement.
When should the comparison be revisited?
Reassess at technology refresh, contract renewal, major upgrade and end-of-contract points. Conditions change: a shared service may mature, a product may add a required capability, an open-source project may lose maintainers, or internal skills may no longer be available. Start migration and procurement lead times early enough to run a safe transition, including data extraction, cleansing, parallel operation, user retraining, decommissioning and replacement assurance.
The decision record should preserve the original assumptions, evidence, cost ranges, risk owners and triggers for review. That makes a later change of route an informed governance decision rather than an emergency reaction to a failing contract or unsupported system.
“Digital services should demonstrate that they have sought to reuse existing solutions before delivering new ones.” — NHS England Digital guidance.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can one department require another department to share its software?
Not automatically. Sharing depends on the owning body’s mandate, security boundary, funding, capacity, licensing and willingness to provide support. Establish a service-level agreement and a named owner before treating the candidate as an available option.
How much contingency should a government software business case include?
There is no universal percentage that fits every route. Base contingency on quantified uncertainty—such as unknown integrations, data quality, demand or migration complexity—and show how the result changes under low, expected and high cases.
What evidence should a supplier provide during a product evaluation?
Request a working demonstration against scripted scenarios, a sample export and restore, performance results for expected peaks, accessibility evidence, patch and incident processes, and a transparent list of dependencies. Require references or operational evidence that matches your scale and regulatory context.
Who owns software created by a delivery supplier?
The contract should specify intellectual-property rights, licences to dependencies, source-code access, documentation, build instructions and rights to modify or transfer the system. Regardless of legal ownership, the public organisation needs operational knowledge and decision rights to run, secure and retire the service.
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