Practices around customization of standard systems

Abstract

More and more software systems are developed by customizing a standard product that provide the major part of the functionality. The customization of Enterprise Resource Planning systems is such a product based software development practice. Little empirical research on the specificities of these software development practices is available. We present an empirical study on customization practices based on video recordings, interviews and a survey. The observed and reported practices challenge some of the principles of software engineering. Based on the analysis, we discuss the specificity of this kind of development, the role of communities of practice, and the resulting challenges for the field of software engineering. Copyright 2008 ACM.