Build-or-Buy Foundation Model Decision
Replace gut-feel calls like 'use OpenAI' or 'self-host Llama' with a seven-factor comparison whose verdicts and weights are written down.
Description
Choose how to source your model by scoring it on seven clear factors. The choices are: host an open-weights model yourself, call a vendor's API, or fine-tune your own. The seven factors are data privacy, data lineage, performance, functionality, control, cost, and team capability. Give each factor a verdict and a weight. Together they point to the sourcing decision. The thing you keep is a written record that names which factors the losing options failed on. That way the choice can be checked later when conditions change.
When to apply
Use this for any new LLM application, or any system whose current model choice is up for review. Triggers include a new regulation, a new model release, a new cost ceiling, or a new performance gap. Run it again from time to time, because the open-versus-vendor landscape moves fast. Don't apply it when an outside rule already forces the answer, such as a contract that names one vendor. Skip it for throwaway prototypes that last under a day.
What it involves
- List candidate options
- Score each option on data privacy
- Score on data lineage
- Score on performance, functionality, and control
- Score on cost and team needs
- Weight, decide, and document
Open the full interactive page →
Diagram, neighbourhood map, code examples, related patterns and full provenance.