At this point in the project it may be appropriate to evaluate the risk
and benefits ofdeveloping a new system versus acquiring from
a vendor a suitable system that is complete, tested and proven.
Consideration should be given to the ability of the organization to
undertake the proposed development project, the costs and risk of
doing so, and the benefits ofhaving total ownership and control
over the new system rather than becoming dependent on a vendor.
Software acquisition is not a phase in the standard SDLC. However,
if a decision was reached to acquire rather than develop software,
software acquisition is the process that should occur after the
requirements definition phase. The decision is generally based on
various factors such as the cost differential between development
and acquisition, availability ofgeneric software, and the time gap
between development and acquisition. Please note that ifthe result
ofthe decision to develop/acquire is to buy a vendor-supplied
software package, the user must be actively involved in the package
evaluation and selection process.