Best Of Breed

"Best of Breed" is the strategy of selecting the best product of each type (and integrating them yourself), rather than selecting one large integrated solution from a single vendor.

Typically, large integrated suites of products (like MicrosoftOffice and LotusSmartSuite?) contain a number of products that have a consistent look and feel, and work well together -- but each tool, taken by itself, is not "top of the field" in the niche it's in.

Taking a "Best of Breed" approach assumes that...

You're good at integrating 3rd party products.
You're willing to take the training costs to overcome the inconsistent GUIs and tricky interfaces needed to get the products to work together.
You believe that there are no appropriate integrated sets of tools on the market that meet your needs.

Someone's at my org has read too many technology whitepapers and has confused architecture with connect-the-dots. They're creating pretty coloured pyramids of different tools, technologies, and standards and justifying it with that well worn AlarmBellPhrase "We're going for a BestOfBreed approach."

Sounds like this shop needs some "de-breeding" ;-)

This can also be used to justify going ahead with developing a product despite the presence of lots of existing and relevant competitors. One can always claim it will be "Best of Breed". See also WashesWhiter.

What seems odd about this phrase is that at the shows with which I'm familiar, BestOfBreed is a runner-up position to "Best of Show".

I think that's right. BestOfBreed as best of its variety, not best of all possible things? -- PaulHudson

"Best of breed" is the correct term: It implies that for each type of software you need, you use the most capable product in that marketplace.

Thus, you end up with a mismatched collection of quirky products that don't work together very well. ;-> -- anon1

Is there anything else? -- anon3

Yes, grashopper, you begin to understand. ;-> -- anon2

"Best of show," however, would imply that if you find that spreadsheet "X" is a "better product" than word processing program "Y", then you would attempt to do all work with "X". That is, to write a paper, you'd use the spreadsheet ("X") instead of a word processor. Likewise, to edit a source program, manage a database, do a presentation, schedule a project, etc..., you'd try to do everything with that one tool. This doesn't work: Use the right tool for the job. // If the job is your primary responsibility, you probably use the right tool. Otherwise, you may just use a convenient SoftwareSuite? "Z" for all purposes: writing papers, crunching spreadsheets, preparing presentations, etc...

(Perhaps "Best of Show," in this context, would apply to integrated packages: They can compete in each component category.)

Interesting comments regarding the use of the appropriate tool; I have a WallyUser? who insists on writing textual documents (like User Specs) in Excel and tabular documents (like IssueLog?) in Word!

I'm scared. I thought this phrase was fictional until I read a Watchfire (the company that makes LinkBot? amongst other products) booklet aimed to get new hires. First paragraph had the phrase, "best of breed." I shuddered and dropped the booklet. What motivates people to laud their practices but not their accomplishments? [money, obviously; perhaps they have no laudable accomplishments... *sigh*] -- SunirShah

Best of breed solutions: A bunch of inferior programs huddling together for warmth around the dying embers of Windows NT. --PhilipGreenspun