The previous part in this blog should have made us aware, that many procedures are required to manage all these steps. To review your status let me ask you a question:What is your Customization Strategy?Your answer might be something like, 'customization strategy, well, we have standards and we let requirement documents approve'.Let me ask you another question:How long does it take to redeploy all your customizations into a fresh installation?In 90% of all installations the answer to this question would be: we can't!Although no one would have to do it (hopefully), just thinking about it and recognizing that we have today too many manual steps involved, different procedures and sometimes (undocumented) manual steps to complete a customization installation. And ... in general too many customizations.Why is working with customizations often so complicated and time consuming?Here are the key reasons as I have identified them in my projects:Customization standards defined, but not maintainedDifferent knowledge on developer side (results getting an individual developer touch)No need to automate deployment (not forced by client)Different documentation styles, not easy to hand over to someone elseDifferent development concepts, difficult for the maintenanceJust the minimum present for testing, often positive testing onlyDeviations from naming conventions accepted, although definedComplicated procedures, therefore sometimes partially ignoredAnd last but not least, hand made version control (still)If you would have to 'redeploy all your customizations' you would have to Follow all your own standards and best practiceTrack deviations and define corrective tasksAutomate as much as possible, minimize manual tasksDo not allow any change coming in without version controlUtilize products to support you in deploymentMinimize hand made scripts and extensive documentationReview regularly used techniques to guarantee that all are in line with the current release and also easy maintainableCreate solution libraries and force the team to contribute and reuseDefine quality activities and execute themDefine a procedure to release customizationsI know, it is easy to write down, but much harder to manage. Will provide some guidelines in my next blog.Volker
