[Sigia-l] Forcing Practice and Business Cases

[Hal Taylor]

Peter wrote:

> Some background: the reason why we cannot change the design of the
> application is that the client wants to keep their upgrade path clear,
> and hence not customize anything. Fair enough. We have tried to weigh
> that against the cost of increased errors and training, it wasn't easy
> and I'm not sure we did the best job at doing that analysis (politics is
> always involved).
> 
> Business apps are great fun :)

The desire to keep the upgrade path clear is understandable enough; upgrades
to modified off-the-shelf systems can be real nightmares, and extremely
expensive.

However, any compromises made in adjusting the business/employees to fit an
off-the-shelf software product are a hidden cost of using that product. I
think the attempt to analyze costs was probably the right approach; too bad
it wasn't more successful. I wonder if there are other costs/compromises
involved with the product which are similarly neglected...

One size does not fit all. It's unfortunate that we're still at a point
where business adapts to fit existing software, rather than vice versa.

-Hal