Customization vs configuration
Here you can identify the extent to which your instance is customized versus configured. The more customized an instance is, the more difficult is its maintenance.
Ways to use this view
Check if you're not running the risk of costly upgrades by making sure your customization rate is kept below 40%.
What data is shown
The Customization vs configuration view shows the following information:
Customization ratio
Widget
The widget shows you the following elements:
- Customization ratio shows the relation between your instance customization and configuration. The higher the percentage, the more difficult the instance is to maintain.
- Configuration ratio shows the relation between your instance configuration and customization.
- Benchmark shows the average metric value for comparison with other environments in Quality Clouds ecosystem.
- Trend (overtime) shows the progress of the metric over time.
Graphs
Changes by Type
Shows all the instance changes depending on the element type: Customization, Configuration or Extension.
Customizations are material modifications to the out of the box behavior of the system, usually done through the introduction of code which modifies default system functionality and which can introduce technical debt if best practices are not being followed.
Out-of-the-box (OOTB) modifications is a subset to customizations done to the OOTB elements which impact directly the platform upgradeability.
Configurations are changes to the behavior of the system done in ways which are less likely to introduce technical debt (i.e. clicks, not code), and that do not impact its upgradeability.
This view also highlights which customized items are modifications to out-of-the-box (OOTB) elements. These impact the instance upgradeability directly and should always be avoided as far as possible.
Extensions, whether developed in-house or downloaded from the ServiceNow store are also shown in the dashboard, but they do not influence the customization vs configuration ratio, since they extend the capabilities of the instance rather than modifying them.
Lines of code by Type
Shows the distribution of the lines of code depending on the element type: Customization, Configuration or Extension.
Grid
The grid shows the list of all modifications done to the platform.
You can search for Type of change: Customization and OOTB modification: true to find the elements that directly impact your platform upgradeability.