Building Software

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

—Nelson Mandela,A Long Walk to Freedom

Chapter 10

Customization

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

—Mahatma Gandhi

Customers have been moving toward nonproprietary shared solutions for quite some time. This trend is primarily due to increasing costs and the realization that there is “no economic benefit to having proprietary applications,” as Professor Nicholas G. Carr, a former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review, says. In many business areas, applications exist that, with proper customization, can be made to work effectively and efficiently for any organization. This chapter focuses on ...