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Abstract

There has been a rapid growth of software content in manufactured products (i.e. software embedded in a product other than a PC, or software provided as part of a product offering such as software running on a PC allowing the user to configure a product) in recent years, greatly extending the functionality and consumer appeal of products in sectors as diverse as cars, consumer electronics, and scientific instruments. This trend presents traditional mechanical engineering companies (and others) with the problem of deciding whether and how to include software content in their products. The purpose of this paper is to present and justify a management tool that helps companies facing these problems. It is in the form of a checklist decision aid and focuses on the question of whether to develop software internally or externally to the company. The paper first reviews work addressing ‘make or buy’ issues and builds on these ideas to explore the issues specific to software, through case studies and interviews. It then describes work to assess industrial preferences for the format of a decision aid, and in response to this develops the checklist of factors grouped around the themes of ‘business interest’, ‘task suitability’, ‘supplier suitability’, and ‘collaboration arrangements’. Validated through workshop and interviews, this checklist guides managers through the software sourcing process. An online version of the checklist also provides the means for a company to accumulate its own experience of sourcing decisions for future reference.

Keywords

make or buy software development

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Sourcing software content for manufactured products

Abstract

Abstract

Keywords

References