3.9. Custom Development Considerations

One of the advantages of choosing an open source technology is that customizations can be developed for serving specific business needs. However, every time the platform is customized, there is a long term maintenance burden that is being created as the custom code will need to be maintained and updated with every updated version of the platform.

There are a few alternatives:

• Build the customization with the Open open source community as an improvement of the platform that gets contributed and added to the next version and then is continuously supported in future versions.

• Build the customization as an independent project, using the stable extensions infrastructure (plugins, or XBlocks).

• Instead of building a new functionality, build a custom integration with an external tool that already provides that functionality. This creates a smaller maintenance footprint and often delivers better outcomes.

• Build the customization with some of the already existing customization capabilities within the platform to obtain the same result without modifying the core of the platform.

For each project and requirement, the technology support team will help navigate these options and make the best decision according to the needs, timeframes, budget available, etc.