Highly agree here! Software is more or less a service albeit it being an high automated one or software leveraged service. I call it a service not a product because it takes man power to keep it running and would stop if we stop paying the monthly server and domain fees. Furthermore, because web technology and evergreen browsers are a thing we constantly need to be vigilant for changing standards and interpretations of the same output.
I stop telling my clients that they pay us to build and buy, but it’s build and maintain afterwards.
That always raises a few questions as building in one way versus the other can lead to higher or lower levels of costs in that maintenance phase.
And, it can’t be cost effectively decoupled. Some governmental agencies think that these are separate services and should be acquired through two different bidding processes, that seems to be a bad idea as small updates will be cheap for those that know the underlying mechanics of the project but expensive for a third party.
I stop telling my clients that they pay us to build and buy, but it’s build and maintain afterwards.
That always raises a few questions as building in one way versus the other can lead to higher or lower levels of costs in that maintenance phase.
And, it can’t be cost effectively decoupled. Some governmental agencies think that these are separate services and should be acquired through two different bidding processes, that seems to be a bad idea as small updates will be cheap for those that know the underlying mechanics of the project but expensive for a third party.