Build vs buy
Four vendors, one decision
For the trademark-monitoring platform I wrote the requirements, ran a four-vendor evaluation against them and made the build-vs-buy call. Then I led the in-house build with the team. It is in production.
Remote (UTC+2) · Open to KSA/UAE relocation · 30-day notice
MarwanMaher
Full-Stack Engineer. Vue/Nuxt + Django.
I build Arabic-first, bilingual RTL products. At SIPRC I built an IP-management platform end to end that now runs 52 IP services, and I still write code while running IT delivery there.
- 5production systems in my portfolio
- 52IP services live on a platform I built
- 40%less manual regression, from the QA practice I founded
01Decide
Decide what is worth building.
Before any code: requirements a vendor can be judged against, options scored with evidence, and a clear call on whether to build, buy, or stop.
Deciding is the work.
Three moments where the decision mattered more than the code.
Knowing when to stop
A finished build that missed the point
After the business rejected a completed Power BI build, I re-scoped reporting as a custom module inside the platform instead of patching the wrong thing.
AI with accountability
A rollout gate for model output
Model output that drives a legal recommendation is validated against historical outcomes before anyone relies on it. That is a condition of rollout, not a benchmark number.
Example: replacing an ageing build server
Try it: when does the winner flip?
A tiny version of decision-matrix. Move the weights and watch the ranking. A thin margin means your weights are deciding, not your options.
Must-have: data stays in our own region
A must-have is a yes/no gate, not a weight. Switch it on and an option that fails it cannot win, however well it scores.
- Buy a hosted service Winner3.65
- Build in-house 2.85
- Do nothing 2.40
Robust: the winner holdsmargin 0.80
Winner: Buy a hosted service, margin 0.80, robust
Scores are illustrative. The full tool adds evidence per score, pairwise weighting and a decision record.
Open decision-matrix →Open source · decide
decision-matrix
Build-vs-buy decisions you can defend.
A guided, in-browser decision matrix. Must-haves stay apart from weights, every score needs evidence, sensitivity analysis flags fragile decisions, and it writes a decision record you can commit.
- 63 tests
- Vue 3
- TypeScript
02Ship
Ship systems people rely on.
From the IP-management platform an operations team runs its day on, to a Three.js showroom and AR try-on.
phasegate
CI that catches the project phases teams skip.
01 / 05
IPORA
IP-management platform
The operations team's daily system of record, with 52 IP services live.
- 52IP services live
- 530+automated test cases
- 40%less manual regression
- 0downtime in the cloud migration
- Nuxt 3
- TypeScript
- Django
- PostgreSQL
- Selenium
- Playwright
- Docker
02 / 05
Trademark monitoring
From vendor evaluation to an in-house build
Four vendors evaluated, one build-vs-buy call, and an in-house build now in production.
- 4vendors evaluated
- Requirements
- Vendor evaluation
- Python
- Django
- PostgreSQL
- 4 vendors evaluated
- 1 build-vs-buy call
- in production
03 / 05
siprc.sa
Company website and AI assistant
The company's public website in Arabic and English, with an AI customer-support assistant.
- TypeScript
- Vite
- GSAP
- Arabic/English RTL
- AI assistant
04 / 05
Cepro
Brand-protection site and operations dashboard
Built the operations dashboard from zero, then rebuilt cepro.ai and delivered it two weeks early.
- 17pages rebuilt
- 2 weeksearly
- Next.js 15
- React 19
- TypeScript
- Tesseract.js
- next-intl
- Vue 3
- Django
05 / 05
Nexxora group
Digitee, Mintora and Lovaa
Six production apps from zero to launch, from a Three.js showroom to AR virtual try-on.
- 6production apps
- 16languages, full RTL
- 5countries of e-commerce
- Vue 3
- Nuxt 3
- TypeScript
- Three.js
- TensorFlow.js
- MediaPipe
- Tailwind
More work.
Freelance engagements, a side project and earlier client work.
Teaching
From Requirements to Clean Code
Workshop on the front-end project lifecycle · December 2025
A workshop and slide deck for students, graduates and freelancers on taking a front-end project from requirements to clean code.
Interlude
Arabic, done properly.
Put a date or a phone number inside an Arabic sentence and the browser silently reorders it. The data is right; only the pixels are wrong, so users stop trusting the data. Flip the switch.
As most sites render it
- Date
آخر تحديث للمستند 12-05-2024 بواسطة الفريق
Document last updated 12-05-2024 by the team
- Phone
للتواصل اتصل على 010 2345 6789 في أي وقت
To reach us, call 010 2345 6789 any time
- Order
تم شحن الطلب #4821-B اليوم
Order #4821-B shipped today
- Delivery
مدة التوصيل 3-5 أيام
Delivery takes 3-5 days
Verified in Chromium: without isolation these four render as 2024-05-12, 6789 2345 010, B-4821# and 5-3.
vue-rtl-kit
Direction state that survives server-side rendering, logical-property utilities, and a BidiText component that isolates only the runs that would move, so dates and IDs stop reversing inside Arabic.
106 testsGitHub →
django-rtl-admin
One app in INSTALLED_APPS: logical-property styling for the parts of the admin that stay mirrored wrong, isolated mixed-script values, Arabic-Indic digits and a language switcher.
192 testsGitHub →
Much of my work ships in Arabic and English. These two open-source kits hold the fixes I kept needing.
03Learn
Learn from what breaks.
Every failure should make the next one harder. I write that down as tests, guards and tools, and some of those tools are open source.
Look at the real data before writing the parser.
Formats you assume are formats you get wrong. More than once, a field I "knew" the shape of turned out to have two shapes, and the difference mattered.
Test in the real thing.
Scripted probes report success on broken paths. If it is a user interface, it is not done until it has been driven in a browser.
Make the failure mode expensive to reintroduce.
A bug that reached production comes back as a regression test, a database constraint or a type, so the same mistake fails loudly next time.
Say plainly what broke.
Status reports name what failed, why, and what changed. A clear bad-news report beats a vague good one.
Open source · learn
django-postmortem
Blameless incident reviews that stop repeat failures.
A Django app where blame-shaped wording is flagged, every action item must name the guard that stops the failure returning, and a review cannot close until someone has checked that guard works.
- regression test
- database constraint
- schema check
- alert
- runbook
- process change
- 133 tests
- Python
- Django
Tools I keep in the open.
Six MIT-licensed tools, each with its tests running in CI.
- decidedecision-matrixBuild-vs-buy decisions you can defend.63 testsVue 3TypeScript
- shipphasegateCI that catches the project phases teams skip.86 testsTypeScriptNode
- learndjango-postmortemBlameless incident reviews that stop repeat failures.133 testsPythonDjango
- rtlvue-rtl-kitRight-to-left done properly for Vue 3 and Nuxt.106 testsVue 3Nuxt
- rtldjango-rtl-adminA properly bilingual, right-to-left Django admin.192 testsPythonDjango
- learnclaude-account-switcherKeep working when one Claude Code account hits its limit.232 checksBashPython
Also: vue-intent — A Vue 3 adapter for intent-first, state-driven UIs with permission guards and navigation protection. All repositories →
The path so far
Building software since 2022, from freelance client work to running an IT portfolio.
2019 – 2023
B.Sc. Computer Science
Assiut University, Egypt
Graduated in 2023.
2022 – 2023
Frontend Developer
Freelance
Client projects from requirements to deployment, including a climate-risk tool for PhD research.
2023 – 2024
Frontend Engineer
IDAAM
Front-end modules for Keme, a US clinic-management platform.
2024 – 2025
Frontend Engineer
Digitee (Nexxora Holding)
Sole frontend engineer for six production apps.
May 2025 – Jul 2025
Frontend Engineer, contractor then full-time
Cepro (SIPRC group)
Built the brand-protection dashboard from zero.
Jul 2025 – Mar 2026
Senior Frontend Engineer, then Full-Stack Engineer
SIPRC
Built the IP-management platform end to end, siprc.sa and its AI assistant, and the cepro.ai rebuild.
Mar 2026 – present
Project Manager, IT Projects
SIPRCNow
Running the IT portfolio: five production systems.
Contact
Let's build the next one.
If your team needs someone who can decide, ship and learn, I would like to hear about it.