Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Four important differentiators are:
1.
Customization works off pre-created software. This software is, in
most cases, off-the-shelf software, although it could be home-
grown too. Home-grown packages are less likely to build the
customization tools necessary to customize the application, only
because the source code is under the organization's control.
2.
Formal customization tools must be provided as part of the product.
3.
Such tools must allow the customer to make substantial modifica-
tions, which will differentiate customization from “mere configu-
ration.”
4.
Customization does not need access to source code. Home-grown
applications can also be architected with the same rigor and quality
of good products. Yet, if the changes are being made directly to
the source, then that must be called enhancement rather than
customization.
Customization versus Enhancements
In the authors' opinion, customization should refer to the first major
modification in an off-the-shelf (OTS) product. Subsequent modifications
to a customized package, however substantial or significant, should be
called enhancement. This avoids being in a stage of endless or continuous
customization. The reasoning behind this is that, once one has acquired
an OTS package and made an initial set of modifications to suit one's
needs, this package has become
package because it now reflects
one's needs and environments. Subsequent changes should be called
enhancements — and not customization, which tends to indicate an
“outside” base from which one has moved away.
Such shifts in terminology also appear in other domains. A writer who
keeps editing what he has written is still “writing” as long as he is in the
creative phase. After he sends the manuscript to a publisher and starts
incorporating the feedback, he is “editing” not “writing,” although this
editing may share a lot with the “writing” done earlier. The formal act of
sending the topic to the publisher establishes a boundary for the termi-
nology change.
one's
Customization and Configuration
The difference between
is one of degree.
Configuration “tweaks a few knobs” and changes some settings to get the
software to do what one wants. Customization, on the other hand, consists
configuration
and
customization
