This Sourcing Strategy Plan Software Development document shows how Eduardo Montes defined the make-vs.-buy decisions and procurement approach for all external resources and services required to build and operate the ProjectAdm SaaS platform. It covers the decision rationale for cloud infrastructure, payment gateways, AI services, and development tools — establishing which components would be built in-house and which would be sourced from external vendors, and how those vendor relationships would be governed throughout the project.

What Is a Sourcing Strategy Plan?

A Sourcing Strategy Plan is a PMBOK 8 output in the Planning Performance Domain that describes the approach for acquiring resources, products, and services from external sources. It documents the make-vs.-buy analysis for each procurement decision, the selection criteria for vendors, the contract type and commercial model for each engagement, and the governance model for managing vendor relationships throughout the project. For software development projects, sourcing strategy decisions have significant technical, financial, and operational implications — the choice between building in-house versus integrating a third-party API affects schedule, budget, and long-term maintenance costs.

What This Sourcing Strategy Plan Software Development Includes

The ProjectAdm Sourcing Strategy Plan covers all significant make-vs.-buy decisions and procurement approaches:

• Cloud Infrastructure — AWS (Buy) — Decision: buy cloud infrastructure from AWS; rationale: AWS sa-east-1 provides LGPD-compliant Brazilian data residency, managed RDS eliminates DBA hire, auto-scaling eliminates capacity planning risk; contract: month-to-month with 12-month price guarantee; monthly cost: $1,200 (development), $2,800 (production)
• Payment Processing — Stripe + PayPal (Buy) — Decision: buy payment processing via APIs; rationale: PCI-DSS compliance outsourced to payment providers; self-built payment processing estimated at $45,000 (200+ hours) vs. 2.9% + $0.30 Stripe fee; PagSeguro removed (CR-003) — webhook reliability concerns and low expected LATAM volume did not justify complexity
• AI/ML Services — OpenAI API (Buy) — Decision: buy AI capabilities via OpenAI API; rationale: building proprietary ML model estimated at $120,000+ and 6+ months — not feasible within $280K budget; ISS-001 rate limit risk mitigated with request queuing; cost: capped at $800/month
• Core Platform Development — Build (Internal) — Decision: build all core SaaS features in-house with 7-person team; rationale: IP ownership required for white-label strategy; internal team skill set matches PHP/CodeIgniter/MariaDB stack; Phoenix project confirms team capability
• Security Audit — External (Buy) — Decision: external penetration test for pre-launch security validation; rationale: internal team cannot objectively audit their own security implementation; vendor selected via 3-quote process; cost: $3,200; performed Sprint 26, 0 critical findings
• Translation Services — External (Buy) — Decision: native-speaker translator for Spanish localization (ISS-005); rationale: M4 lessons learned showed automated translation produced context errors in UI strings; cost: $800; vendor: freelance translator; delivery: post-launch March 2026
• UI/UX Design — Internal (Make) — Decision: internal designer (Camila Rocha) for all UI/UX work; rationale: consistent design language requires single designer ownership; design system documented in Sprint 2 enabled faster CR delivery (CR-001 dark mode completed one sprint early)

How Eduardo Montes Used This Sourcing Strategy Plan Software Development

Eduardo Montes used the Sourcing Strategy Plan Software Development document as the reference for all procurement decisions throughout ProjectAdm. When Henry Douglas proposed adding Twilio SMS in Sprint 16, Eduardo referenced the sourcing strategy's make-vs.-buy framework to quickly evaluate: Twilio API (buy) at $0.0075/SMS vs. building an SMTP fallback (make) at 40 hours. The analysis took under 30 minutes because the framework was already established — the team decided to buy Twilio and Eduardo processed it as a sub-$5,000 scope addition with Henry Douglas's verbal confirmation.

How to Use This Sourcing Strategy Plan Software Development Document

When writing your own Sourcing Strategy Plan Software Development document, document the make-vs.-buy rationale for every significant component. When a stakeholder questions why you're paying AWS rather than self-hosting, having the documented analysis (with the DBA hire cost and compliance complexity factored in) makes the answer immediate and credible.

Download the Template and Deepen Your Knowledge

Ready to create your own sourcing strategy plan? Download the blank Sourcing Strategy Plan Template (PMBOK 8).

• Download the Sourcing Strategy Plan Template — PMBOK 8 (blank, ready to use)
• Read the full guide: Sourcing Strategy Plan in PMBOK 8

Want to go deeper? The PMBOK Guide 8th Edition is the definitive reference for modern project management. Get your copy and use it alongside these examples to build a solid, practical understanding of every performance domain.

Format: Microsoft Word (.docx) | Project: Software Development (SaaS Platform) | PMBOK Edition: 8th (2025) | Domain: Planning