[consulting] preparing clients for Drupal 5 obsolesence

[Susan Stewart]

Matt Chapman wrote:
> Hi consultants,
> 
> Since the announcement of the Drupal 7 code freeze, I've made the 
> decision for my company to not accept any new clients on Drupal 5. 
> (Although we continue to serve our existing D5 clients, while 
> encouraging them to plan for an upgrade near the end of the year.) This 
> policy will surely cost us some business, but I would prefer for us to 
> focus our energies on pushing the drop forward, and I feel it is 
> irresponsible to advise my clients to invest in a platform which will 
> have no more security updates in roughly 9 months.
> 
> Is there any hope of forming a coalition of like minded consultants? 
> Something like the gophp5.org initiative? If we all refuse to invest any 
> more labor in Drupal 5, even if it is faster or easier to do so, we can 
> instead focus our energies (and our clients' funding) on porting and 
> extending Drupal 6 & 7 modules now, and we won't have to relive the 9 
> month lag between the release of a new Core and it's viability for real 
> projects.
> 
> I'm eager to hear your response, whether you think I'm misguided, or if 
> you're eager to get on board and design a nifty logo we can all put on 
> our web sites.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Matt
> NinjitsuWeb.com

I absolutely agree that investing in any Drupal 5 project at this point,
other than to upgrade it, can only lower the quality of our services.
My shop has been in full Drupal 6 mode for some time now, and are
beginning to remind our few remaining D5 clients that EOL is coming soon
to an internet near them.

What I wonder, though, is whether a web site and a logo about a
goDrupal6 initiative would make things worse, not better.  GoPHP5 was
aimed at developers, to encourage them to pressure hosting companies and
their fellow developers.  It wasn't meant to touch the consumer
community.  I'm concerned that a godrupal6 campaign could give clients
the impression that the case for migrating to Drupal 6 is that it's good
for the developers, not necessarily good for them.

I believe that all reputable developers will make the same decision that
we've come to independently -- that it's time to start moving on from
Drupal 5, and that developing new projects on the most recent stable
software that can meet that project's needs is always the best course of
action.

I believe that less reputable developers will keep selling whatever a
client asks for, even when it means putting their name to an inferior
product.

I also believe that there are developers between the two, who are
concerned over losing work from clients who are in love with outdated
software, or feel pressured to offer upgrades free or at a loss in order
to keep clients who were unprepared for the coming EOL.  They want to
keep everyone up to date, but are caught between making it affordable
for the company to provide, and affordable for the client to contract.

This last group is where we can make a difference.  Let the reasons to
upgrade stand as a given -- I don't think anyone among us thinks that
timely upgrades aren't the ideal situation.  Instead, perhaps we can
target commonly upgrade-critical contrib modules with a bit of paid
developer time, and make some sort of effort to share our expertise in
making major version upgrades as easy and inexpensive as possible for
both parties.

Then developers can continue making the case for upgrades to their
clientèle based on each client's specific need, and a better ability to
control the costs associated with upgrade, improving the cost/benefit
ratio for everyone.

I guess what I'm getting at here is that there are ways we can take
action, rather than just creating an ad campaign, and that we'll get
better return on our investment by doing so.

-- Susan