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.