1 min lesson
Decide on total cost, not first-build cost
Name the parts in "Decide on total cost, not first-build cost" and give the practical job of each one.
Step 1 of 2
Decide on total cost, not first-build costwho supports it after you
The cheap build is rarely the cheap system. Every custom script, scheduled flow and integration is something that breaks at a vendor release, fails a SOXSarbanes-Oxley Act. A US law that forces companies to keep auditable controls over any system that affects their financial reporting. Press Enter for the full definition. walkthrough if it's undocumented and pages someone at quarter close. Price the decision over its life, not over the sprint.
- Maintainability
- who edits this in two years and can they without reverse-engineering you
- Upgrade safety
- does a NetSuite or billing-platform release break it and will you know before close
- Auditability
- can an auditor trace and re-perform it or is it a black box
- Support load
- where does the page go at 11pm on the last day of the quarter
A build that scores badly on these is technical debt wearing an engineer's badge.
Over-customizing an ERP into an unupgradeable state is the classic finance-systems implementation failure. Heavy SuiteScript, hard-coded business logic in the GL, custom fields the vendor's release notes never anticipated - each one is fine alone and lethal in aggregate. When the platform can't take the next version, you've built a fork you now maintain forever. Name this risk before the interviewer has to.