Our data revealed postponement practices in this process in the sense that customization activities occurred only later in the specification process.
In addition, modularity provides guidance during needs assessment and subsequent package specification since it allows organizations to both stimulate and manage client involvement in the specification process.
This would enable professionals involved in the specification process to relate supply to the multiple and diverse demands of long-term care clients more easily.
Whether these differences are indicative of differences in relative developmental maturity or reflect some underlying difference in the specification process remains to be determined.
At the same time, the case organizations were confronted with a downside of client involvement, i.e. the introduction of a great deal of uncertainty and variability in the specification process, which posed the need to control client interaction as well.
The activities that took place in the specification process were, thus, sequenced in such a way that common-to-all activities occurred early in the process while customization activities were postponed until later in the process.
