Insourcing Triggers for a Business-Critical Mobile App Built by an Outside Vendor

Your company pays an outside development firm to build and maintain a mobile app that is critical to the business. As the product manager, how would you decide when development of the app should move to a team inside the company? Explain the factors you would weigh, the signals that would tell you the time has come, and how you would turn them into a decision. ```hint Revisit the original reasons Start from why the work went to a vendor in the first place, check which of those reasons still hold today, and ask what would have to change for each one to stop holding. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Why was the app outsourced: not enough internal capacity, missing mobile expertise, speed to market, or a low-commitment bet that might be dropped? - How mature is the app: an early release still looking for traction, or an established product with many users and a long roadmap? - Does taking development in house mean our engineers take over the vendor's codebase, rebuild the app, or bring the vendor's team into the company? - What does the contract say about who owns the source code, the app store accounts and the signing keys, and about how the engagement can end? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - The original reasons for outsourcing, tested against today's situation - Decision criteria spanning strategic importance, delivery speed, integration with internal systems, security and compliance, quality, cost and the ability to staff a team - Measurable triggers that turn those criteria into a "when", including a cost comparison over an explicit time horizon - The cost of moving too early versus too late in the app's lifecycle - A handover plan, its main risks, and the metrics that show users are not hurt during the switch ### Follow-up Questions - Most knowledge of the codebase sits with a few of the vendor's engineers. How would you protect continuity during the handover? - Finance shows the vendor staying cheaper than an internal team for the foreseeable future. What would still justify moving the work in house? - How would you decide between taking over the vendor's code as it is and rebuilding the app?