If You Need to Customize, Implement Wisely

If you have weighed the costs and benefits and you have decided that a customization is justified, it is important to implement your customization wisely. Although important, I'm not talking about project planning and testing but rather on how you plan to implement and manage your customization. For instance, if the customization that you ask for is a one-off and never used again , then maybe it is better to work with your IT department and document management vendor to ensure that everyone knows (and it is documented) that this is a one-off customization that will be needed for a certain purpose but then not needed again. After the customization is implemented and its purpose for existing is completed, then the customization should either be pulled out of the system or process or it should be commented out if it is embedded in code and cannot be easily extracted. Everything should be well documented. If the customization is a permanent change, then you should consider the benefits of making it a modular customization. What that means is that instead of making it a one off customization, work with your document management vendor or reseller to see how the customization could be used at other clients. Your vendor or reseller/consultant will be happier to write and support 'customized' solutions and give you a better price if they believe that they have a chance at selling it as a product to other clients down the road. Plus, supporting the customization will be more straight forward because supporting one-off customizations can be challenging for both you and your vendor as there is usually no good way to delineate issues. As a modular customization, ongoing support and future upgrades and releases will be more easily handled and fewer disagreements will result. Just make sure that the requirements and boundaries of the custom module are well defined for both you and your vendor or consultant.