Scratch development is a method of custom-made development of systems and software from scratch. Compared to package development, which involves customizing a package that has already been programmed to a near-complete state, it is inferior in terms of development time and cost, but it has the advantage of allowing you to create a system that perfectly suits your business and highly unique software.
In this column, we will introduce the advantages and disadvantages of scratch development in an easy-to-understand manner.
table of contents
- What is scratch development?
- Advantages of scratch development
- Disadvantages of scratch development
- Development that is suitable for scratch development and development that is not suitable for it
- summary
1. What is scratch development?
Scratch development is a method of custom-made development of systems and software from scratch.
The English word “scratch”, which means “to scratch”, is an idiom “from scratch”, meaning “from scratch” or “from nothing”.
Scratch development has a high degree of development freedom and can be expected to produce a product that satisfies the requirements, but it also has disadvantages such as increased development time and costs.
The advantages and disadvantages of scratch development will be discussed later.
Difference between scratch development and full scratch development
Among scratch development, “full scratch development” refers to the case where no template programs such as templates or frameworks are used at all.
Difference between scratch development and package development
Package development is the opposite of scratch development.
Package development is a development method that uses existing systems. Based on a generally available package system, we customize it by adding functions to meet the customer’s wishes.
The advantage of package development is that you can reduce the development period and development costs, and the disadvantages are that it does not perfectly match your business, so you have to change your business to match the system, and the period of use is long., there is a possibility that official support will end midway.
2. Advantages of scratch development
Scratch development has the following advantages: “high degree of development freedom,” “optimized requirements definition,” and “able to create highly scalable systems.”
We will introduce each of them while comparing them to package development.
High degree of freedom in development
Since it is custom-built from scratch, most requirements can be achieved as long as you have the money and developer skills.
We aim to improve business efficiency with a system that is perfectly tailored to your business, provide highly unique applications that provide customers with an unprecedented UX, and increase your competitiveness by setting you apart from your competitors. You can get an advanced system.
Requirements definition is optimized
As mentioned above, scratch development has a high degree of freedom, so it is possible to create a system that has all the required requirements. On the other hand, in the case of a system developed as a package, to ensure versatility, functions that are generally in high demand are installed on a priority basis. Therefore, it includes functions that are not necessary for your company. In the case of scratch development, only the functions required by the requirements definition are incorporated, so unnecessary functions are not included. We can create systems and software that have the necessary and sufficient functionality with optimized requirements definition.
A highly scalable system can be realized
This is a problem with how the policy was set at the beginning of development, but it is recommended to start small by installing the minimum necessary functions at the time of the first release, and gradually expand the functions as the number of users increases. Development based on this assumption is possible.
On the other hand, in the case of package development, customization such as adding functions and linking with other tools is possible, but the degree of freedom in extensibility is low.
3. Disadvantages of scratch development
On the other hand, there are three disadvantages to scratch development:
Long development period
Scratch development, in which a custom-made product is created from scratch, typically requires a development period of six months to several years.
Because the development period is long, the business environment may change during that time, and business processes may change, and there is a risk that the actual business situation may deviate from the initial requirement definition.
Monetary costs (initial costs) are high
The longer the development period, the higher the development cost. In particular, in the case of highly difficult systems, the labor costs are also high, so the initial cost when the system is delivered will be considerably higher than that of package development. It can range from tens of millions of yen to hundreds of millions of yen.
Difficult to choose a development vendor
Scratch development is a development method with a high degree of freedom, but it also places a heavy burden on the in-house staff and development vendor. The quality of the final product also depends on the person in charge and the development vendor.
In particular, the selection of a development vendor is important, and it is necessary to carefully select a vendor that has the skills and know-how to understand the wishes of the user company and successfully incorporate them into the system. Although it is possible to infer such skills to a certain extent from past development results and “customer feedback,” it is difficult to accurately discern these skills.
If you choose a company that does not have sufficient skills and hospitality, the development period may take longer than necessary, or all requirements may not be met in the end, resulting in a waste of money and time. yeah.
Another disadvantage is that it is difficult to select a development vendor.
4. Developments that are suitable and unsuitable for scratch development
Considering the advantages and disadvantages of scratch development as mentioned above, the development that scratch development is suitable for and the development that it is not suitable for are as follows.
Development suitable for scratch development
Scratch development is time-consuming and costly, but can meet unique and numerous requirements. Therefore, the suitable development is one with the following characteristics.
- Developing systems and software on time and within budget
- Developing systems that are likely to undergo regular feature additions and modifications
- Development of systems used for core operations
- A highly unique system whose requirements cannot be met through package development
- If you cannot change the business flow to match the system
Development not suitable for scratch development
On the other hand, scratch development is not suitable for development that cannot absorb the disadvantages of scratch development, such as the long development period and monetary costs.
- When you need to introduce a system or software on a low budget
- When a system or software must be introduced in a short lead time
- If you are looking for a system to use for non-core business
- When you want to change the business flow or standardize the business at the same time as introducing the system
5. Summary
We introduced an overview of scratch development and its advantages and disadvantages.
Scratch development is a method of creating custom-made systems and software from scratch, and because the degree of freedom in development is high, the skills required of engineers are also high, and the development period and costs tend to be high.
The advantages and disadvantages of scratch development and package development are opposite.
It can be said that scratch development is suitable for systems whose requirements cannot be met by package development, and for software that has a flexible schedule.