Software and Platform Delivery Cost Optimisation

Practical strategies for SLT and Product Leaders on cost optimisation!

In an environment of tightening budgets, increasing cloud spend, and growing customer expectations, cost optimisation in software and platform delivery has become a strategic priority rather than just an operational concern. For Senior Leadership Teams (SLT) and Product Managers, the challenge is not simply to reduce costs, but to optimise spend while maintaining delivery velocity, quality, and business value.

Exploring key areas where organisations can achieve meaningful cost optimisation across the software and platform delivery lifecycle.

1. Align Delivery with Business Value

One of the highest hidden costs in software delivery is building the wrong things.

Optimisation opportunities:

• Value-based prioritisation: Use frameworks like OKRs or WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First) to ensure teams focus on initiatives with clear business outcomes.

• Kill low-value initiatives early: Regular portfolio reviews to stop or pause projects that are not delivering ROI.

• MVP-first mindset: Deliver the smallest valuable solution first and iterate based on real user feedback.

Impact: Reduces wasted engineering effort and prevents over-investment in features that do not move business metrics.

2. Rationalise Technology Stack and Architecture

Complex, fragmented technology landscapes drive up both delivery and operational costs.

Optimisation opportunities:

• Platform standardisation: Reduce the number of frameworks, tools, and languages in use.

• Decommission legacy systems: Retire systems that are costly to maintain and provide limited value.

• Adopt modular architectures: Well-designed APIs and microservices can reduce change costs and improve reuse.

Impact: Lower maintenance costs, faster onboarding of engineers, and improved delivery predictability.

3. Optimise Cloud and Infrastructure Spend

Cloud is often the highest and fastest-growing cost in modern platforms.

Optimisation opportunities:

• Right-sizing resources: Identify over-provisioned compute, storage, and databases.

• Auto-scaling and serverless: Pay only for what you use.

• Reserved instances/savings plans: Commit to predictable workloads with the potential to gain discounted rates.

• Environment management: Shut down non-production environments outside working hours.

• FinOps practices: Implement cross-functional cloud cost ownership and transparency.

Impact: Immediate and measurable cost savings without affecting customer experience.

4. Improve Delivery Team Structure and Ways of Working

How teams are organised directly impacts delivery efficiency.

Optimisation opportunities:

• Stable, product-aligned teams: Reduce context switching and handovers.

• Reduce dependencies: Empower teams with end-to-end ownership.

• Right-size team composition: Avoid overstaffing roles where not required.

Impact: Higher productivity, lower coordination costs, and faster time-to-market.

5. Invest in Automation and DevOps

Manual processes are expensive, slow, and error-prone.

Optimisation opportunities:

• CI/CD pipelines: Automate build, test, and deployment.

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Reduce manual configuration and rework.

• Automated testing: Lower regression and support costs.

• Self-service platforms: Enable teams to provision resources without platform bottlenecks.

Impact: Reduced operational overhead, fewer production incidents, and lower support costs.

6. Reduce Cost of Poor Quality

Defects, rework, and incidents create high hidden costs.

Optimisation opportunities:

• Shift-left quality: Invest in early testing, code reviews, and design validation.

• Observability and monitoring: Detect issues before customers do.

• Technical debt management: Allocate capacity to address high-impact technical debt on a regular basis.

Impact: Lower incident costs, reduced customer churn, and improved engineering morale.

7. Optimise Vendor and Licensing Spend

Third-party tools and vendors often grow unchecked.

Optimisation opportunities:

• License audits: Remove unused or underutilised licenses.

• Vendor consolidation: Reduce overlapping tools.

• Renegotiate contracts: Use actual usage data in renewals.

• Build vs buy analysis: Avoid expensive platforms for simple use cases.

Impact: Direct cost savings with minimal impact on delivery.

8. Use Data to Drive Cost Decisions

Cost optimisation should be continuous and data-driven.

Optimisation opportunities:

• Cost transparency dashboards: Cloud, tooling, and team costs visible to leadership.

• Unit economics: Track cost per feature, per release, or per customer.

• Delivery metrics: Use DORA or flow metrics to identify inefficiencies.

Impact: Better strategic decisions and stronger financial governance.

A Strategic View for SLT

For senior leaders, cost optimisation should not be treated as a one-off exercise or a reactive cost-cutting initiative. The most successful organisations embed cost awareness into:

• Product strategy

• Technology governance

• Engineering culture

• Investment decision-making

The goal is not to spend less, but to spend better - maximising business outcomes per unit of engineering investment.

Takeaways

For SLT and Product Managers, the highest-impact cost optimisation levers are:

1. Build only what delivers business value

2. Simplify technology and architecture

3. Actively manage cloud and infrastructure spend

4. Organise teams for flow and ownership

5. Automate everything possible

6. Eliminate the cost of poor quality

7. Control vendor and licensing sprawl

8. Use data, not assumptions

When done well, cost optimisation becomes a competitive advantage - enabling faster delivery, better products, and stronger financial performance.