[Catalyst] BBC's "Perl on Rails" nuttiness

[Dave Howorth]

>>>     You have to remember that Siemens are responsible for ensuring the
>>>     stability of the public facing infrastructure.
>>>     This makes it important not to introduce new modules, or upgrade
>>>     existing modules, without an extensive
>>>     testing period to make sure it works with all existing applications. The
>>>     trouble with this is that it is easier to
>>>     keep stable (or work around existing known problems) by not installing
>>>     anything new.
>>>         
>>     Sure - but as I understand BBC is their client and this policy makes
>>     the life of BBC programmers pretty miserable.  
>>       
>     Yes, it does make for a pretty frustrating work environment
>     sometimes and although Siemens should
>     be working for the BBC it often feels like the other way around.
> 
> Seems poorly thought out.

There's one point that hasn't been stressed that I think is very
important. The problem isn't technical, it's commercial.

The BBC have outsourced some work to Siemens. It's certainly the case
that to maintain stability Siemens would need to do testing but I
imagine the main factor from their point of view is that *it provides
extra revenue*. I don't know about this contract but on another I'm
aware of they like nothing better than having the client request a new
feature :)

Without knowing the reasons why the BBC chose to outsource and the
contract details, it really isn't possible to say whether it's a
sensible arrangement. Sure it makes developers' lives more difficult,
but that's not the main goal to be optimized.

Cheers, Dave