An alternative to customization

When you need to bridge the gap between your organization’s way of working and CiviCRM’s standard features, customization is an option.

And just to define the term, here's what I mean:

Customization: Creating or modifying computer code (usually PHP and JavaScript files) to add or alter functionality.

But as we've discussed, that option comes with a big caveat:

Somebody (you) will have to make sure that your customizations continue to work well under newer CiviCRM versions, indefinitely. And that's a big commitment.

If you're not up for that, there's an alternative.

Stick with changes you can make through configuration — that is, using in-application point-and-click workflows (or, changes to settings files like CiviCRM settings.php) to get a desired outcome.

And if that doesn't totally bridge the gap to fit your way of working, you have another alternative:

Adapt your way of working to fit the CRM.

Remember, what we're discussing here is bridging a gap between two things.

And if moving one of those things doesn't quite bring them together, you can move the other thing.

In the end, everything is a trade-off, a cost-benefit decision. You don't have to make the software fit your needs, if you can make your needs fit the software.

And, if that sounds like too big of a lift — if changing your workflows is just too difficult — you do have one more option. More on that tomorrow.

All the best,
A.