Some I.T. personnel are as far apart as the East is from the West. Three metrics separate the developers from the management:
+ Easy to use
+ Fast
+ Proprietary
You see from management's perspective, software and file formats should be fast, easy to use, and universally available. In this way the company avoids being locked in to knowledge experts or particular vendors.
The developer however actually prefers the opposite: software and file formats that are cumbersome, resource intensive, and proprietary. In this way he can become an expert and increase his value to his employer.
So with both sides pulling in opposite directions what actually gets developed, what can possibly morph into physical being? Somewhere amidst the massive amounts of energy used in the politics and positioning of the two sides something springs up in-between.
Irrespective of the methodology employed or the layers of middle management helping to assuage differences, software developed in a corporate environment ends up partially complicated in the more obscure parts, just fast enough to get the job done, and reliant upon one or two inside hacks. It can be no other way.
