Check existing options first
Custom software begins only after a material workflow gap survives product and process alternatives.
Build-or-buy decision tools
Before you build it, find out what you are taking on.
OK2Build uses hard-stop questions to decide whether a workflow should be bought, configured, built narrowly, investigated, or left unbuilt.
Name the hard stops
External identity, sensitive data, isolation, integrations, recovery, and operational ownership can block a build.
Narrow the boundary
Keep commodity and high-risk capabilities in established systems when a smaller custom layer solves the real problem.
Latest guidance
Recently published
build-decision
Build the Workflow Layer, Not a New System of Record
Decide when a narrow custom workflow around an established record system is safer than replacing the record system itself.
build-decision
No Operational Owner, No Custom App
Use an operational-ownership hard stop before approving custom software that the business cannot monitor, support, recover, and retire.
build-decision
Should an Agency Build a Custom Client-Approval Portal?
Apply version, identity, authority, history, export, and ownership hard stops before building a custom portal for client approvals lost in email.
Publishing next
The first reporting tracks
- Should a small business build a client portal?
- When a spreadsheet should remain a spreadsheet
- How to define a safe custom-software boundary
- A pre-build operational ownership check
About this publication
A go decision should be allowed to fail.
OK2Build publishes reusable decision records with explicit alternatives, trust boundaries, hard stops, and smaller-scope options. It does not certify software as secure or compliant.