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Issue 044PositionGovernanceRef 150

The difference between custom and careless

The line between a customisation and a careless over-engineering project is often fine. Understanding the distinction is crucial for long-term platform health, operational efficiency, and managing total cost of ownership in Adobe Commerce.

Neil Boughton· Technical Director
4 min readReviewed February 2026
"The path from necessary customisation to careless over-engineering is easily taken; it impacts scalability, maintainability, upgradeability, and total cost of ownership."
Written by
Neil Boughton, Technical Director at iWeb
Neil Boughton
Technical Director
29 years at iWeb

Neil leads platform architecture and integration strategy at iWeb. He has designed ERP and commerce integration patterns across manufacturing, wholesale and retail, and writes about operational resilience, release governance, observability, and the infrastructure decisions that determine whether large programmes stay stable under pressure. Bias toward durable, measurable systems over architectural theatre.

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