Custom Script Risks and Alternatives
One of my customers is having us do some work on a custom admin module he’s used with his site for several years. We’ve been going back and forth about custom scripts. Here’s an excerpt from this morning’s email that’s applicable to the vast mojority of custom website scripts.
One of the realities of having a custom script is that it requires continued care and feeding which all requires money. Custom scripts are a great way to get you exactly what you want but with that you also get restrictions and risks. Moving to a new server and changing a domain name, for example, can have a variety of side effects.
One question worth asking, that you may have already asked and answered, is whether or not the custom admin module is still providing real business value in terms of how the site operates. And, if it is, is it providing more business value than a good canned script would provide? You will have ongoing expenses with a custom admin module like this as long as you have it, and those costs are likely to go up over time, possibly in a very dramatic way. (This is actually a very well defined pattern in software engineering. Cost of change rises until the software is no longer maintainable. There are ways around this, but not with most PHP scripts.)
If you switch to more of a canned script, you may give up little touches here and there, but you’ll usually gain portability, support and new features that you didn’t have to pay for.