# How Should You Manage Banner Modifications?

Source: https://www.itcadence.com/blog/how-to-manage-banner-modifications
Category: Banner Technical | Published: 2026-10-01 | Updated: 2026-10-01 | Publisher: ITCadence

Local modifications make every Banner upgrade harder. How to inventory, classify, test and retire Banner mods, and when to use Extensibility or APIs instead.

**Short answer:** Treat every Banner modification as technical debt with an owner. Keep a full inventory of each mod (what object it changes, why, who owns it, and how it is tested), re-evaluate it at every upgrade, and retire it whenever delivered functionality, Banner Extensibility or an API-based integration can do the same job. New requests should go through change control that prefers configuration and extensibility over code changes.

## Overview

You cannot avoid all customisation, but you can **know exactly what you have** and **shrink it every year**.

## Step 1: Inventory

For every modification, record:

| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Object(s) changed | Package, page, trigger, process |
| Business reason | "Collect sponsor reference at registration" |
| Owner | Registrar's office |
| Test steps | How to prove it still works |
| Last reviewed | Release or date |

## Step 2: Classify

- **Retire**: no longer needed or now delivered by Ellucian.
- **Replace with configuration**: rules or validation changes.
- **Move to Extensibility**: labels, fields, simple pages. See [Banner Extensibility](https://www.itcadence.com/blog/what-is-banner-extensibility).
- **Move to APIs**: integration logic. See [Ethos APIs](https://www.itcadence.com/blog/ethos-api-banner-integrations).
- **Keep**: truly unique and justified, with tests.

## Step 3: Govern new requests

1. Ask "can configuration do this?" first.
2. Then "can Extensibility do this?"
3. Code changes need a business case, an owner and a test script.

> **Tip:** Report your mod count to leadership each term. A visible number tends to go down.

## Frequently asked questions

### What counts as a Banner modification?

Any change to Ellucian-delivered objects, such as pages, packages, processes, triggers or tables, plus custom objects that depend on baseline internals.

### Why do mods make upgrades slower?

Each upgrade may overwrite or conflict with modified objects, so every mod must be re-applied, recompiled and regression-tested.