9
Antipattern #9 · clarity · p. 75
Customizing Commodities
Buying wheels instead of reinventing them frees talent to focus on differentiators.
The Tin Man Behavior
Investing resources into creating products, features, or services that provide no competitive advantage and customizing them unnecessarily.
The Results
- ·Diminished ability to adapt and innovate as critical resources are wasted on developing commodities
- ·Maintenance of commodities increases operational complexity and technical debt.
How Octopus Organizations Behave Instead
- ↳They ruthlessly identify and maximize investments in what uniquely creates customer value.
- ↳They buy or outsource anything that doesn't provide a competitive advantage.
- ↳They adapt business processes to standard systems wherever possible, not vice versa.
- ↳They refrain from "gold-plating" systems with unneeded features and functions.