You don’t have to build it from scratch

One thing I've noticed about organizations that are happy with their open source tools: they stay abreast of the plugins and extensions that are available from the community, and they make effective use of them.

• Drupal has over 40,000 available modules

• WordPress, over 55,000 plugins

• CiviCRM, over 500 extensions

Whatever your unique need, there’s a very good chance that you can get it done with creative use of some of these freely available tools.

Using tools from the community has distinct advantages over building your own:

1. It challenges you to think about your problem in a way that makes sense to lots of people not just you.

2. Most of these tools are going to continue to be improved by the community for a long time. That includes security updates.

3. When you need help making it do something new, there are lots of people who can help you.

Yes, sometimes your need is truly unique, and in that case building it from scratch with custom development is certainly an option — if you have measuable business goals that will justify the expense of creating and maintaining what you build.

But if there's a tool right there waiting to be used, why oh why would you reinvent the wheel?

Are you letting the perfect be the enemy of the good?

You probably know you can’t be perfect. You probably know your staff can’t be perfect either.

What about your software systems?

The question is not whether your systems can be perfect. They never will be.

The question is: Are your systems helping you meet your goals? You do have goals, right? Clear, measurable, attainable goals?

If you have specific goals, think about how your systems can help you meet them. That’s the only question that matters.

(If you don’t have them, that’s a separate conversation.)

Everything is a trade-off

How safe do you want to be? Do you want six locks on your house with six separate keys? Or would you rather have no locks so you can just come and go without having to fish around in your pocket?

Security and convenience are trade-offs.

How comfortable do you want to be? Do you want to fly first class on your vacation and stay at a five-star hotel? Or would you rather fly coach and stay at a hostel, so you can spend your money on more memorable adventures?

Comfort and expense are trade-offs.

In a world where time and resources are limited, which happens to be the world we live in, everything is a trade-off.

Here's the thing:

When selecting and designing your systems, you have to decide your priorities, and you may have to give up one thing to get another. There's no right answer. But you do have to make a choice.

Are you feeling lucky?

Overheard today: "I've hired more people than I can count to fix this problem, and they all did what they said they would do, and none of them have fixed the problem."

I'm wondering: Did any of these people know what the problem actually was? Did any of them say they would actually solve the problem? Was anyone measuring the results and the leading indicators?

Here's the thing:

If you don't identify the problem out loud, and measure leading indicators along the way, there's a good chance you're relying on luck, at best. Getting lucky is lots of fun, but it's no plan for success.

Are you sure your software is the problem?

Wouldn’t you like to go farther, faster?

The SSC Tuatara is currently the fastest car you can buy, with a top speed of over 315 mph. Prefer a name you've actually heard of? How about the Porsche 918 Spyder — top speed: 218 mph.

That kind of a car will get you places, and fast.

Now ask yourself: How long would it take you to get to work in one of those?

You're right. It would take you about as long as it takes you in your current car.

Because the problem with your morning commute is not the speed of your car. You still have to deal with traffic, and stop lights, and the law, and finding a parking place, and idiots on the road, and waiting for your kids to get ready for school, and stopping for coffee, and construction, and that time you forgot your phone and had to turn around and go home again.

Spending a lot of time and money on better tools is alluring. But is a better set of tools going to solve the problem that you're trying to solve?

Even the best CRM system won't solve everything. You still have to deal with complicated policies; and communication issues between your board, your executives, and your staff; and volunteer recruitment; and staff turnover; and compliance; and crazy people; and lazy people; and that one board member who always wants to change something at the last minute.

There are lots of things that software can do. But there are a lot of things that it can't do.

Remember what your real goals are. What's really going to help you get there?