The IKEA effect in software engineering
Blog post from Ory
Revamping a home office with an IKEA desk highlights the "IKEA effect," where individuals place higher value on products they help create, akin to developers navigating build vs. buy decisions in software development. This cognitive bias reflects challenges in software development, where companies must balance building core business features with offloading non-core tasks. BoxyHQ, now part of Ory, exemplifies this by addressing enterprise readiness challenges faced by startups, where developers often spend significant time on compliance and security requirements, detracting from innovation. Ory aims to alleviate this burden by providing easily integrable, self-hosted services and APIs, allowing developers to focus on core projects. A recent example is the launch of SAML Jackson (now Ory Polis), a SAML SSO service designed to simplify authentication processes, demonstrating Ory's commitment to enhancing developer efficiency and security awareness.