[australia] Why home grown CMS?

[Andrew Breese]

If an application is not properly supported, and is not maintained on a
regular basis, can it really be called a corporate/business grade CMS?
i.e. Is it worth the paper its printed on? (my take is obviously no).

 I say this coming from a few development houses where the back-end
systems were adequate for our needs, but would never be put in the hands
of end-users. Its extreme to say but the diligence, testing, and design
that a commercial product needs is often missing from in-house
applications. Those that succeed usually have a mentor or developer who
takes ownership for the project, and acts with passion.

Hopefully that owner spreads the passion to others, and does not leave
the organisation. Also taking a back office in-house tool and
commercializing it can often be as difficult as a re-write, due to
preconceived notions, and a want to not waste the initial effort.

- Andrew Breese


-----Original Message-----
From: australia-bounces at lists.cmprofessionals.org
[mailto:australia-bounces at lists.cmprofessionals.org] On Behalf Of
Melanie Kendell
Sent: Tuesday, 10 October 2006 4:03 PM
To: Chris Blown
Cc: australia at lists.cmprofessionals.org
Subject: Re: [australia] Why home grown CMS?

On 10/10/06, Chris Blown <griffon at hinterlands.com.au> wrote:
> I have often noticed that programmers - if given a choice -  would 
> prefer to code their own systems rather than learn an existing system 
> well enough to extend and support it like their own code.

I have also come across the perception from some programmers that
building something in-house is somehow "free" because, after all, they
would be paid for being there anyway.

I think it also depends if the CMS implementation was something that was
seen as a project in its own right or something that evolved over time
as a side task. Back-door building of systems is easier than back-door
implementation of outside built systems (especially if you go commercial
and have to get a purchase order authorised).

My main concern with homegrown systems is that while its fun to build,
the programmer that is happy to maintain is rare, and one that will
document to a level where the system can be maintained once they have
become bored or moved on is rarer still.

-Melanie
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