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It sounds like McLaren didn't get very good documentation from whoever designed the interface and management software (and now the information may be lost). Spe
by EvanAnderson 11y ago
It sounds like McLaren didn't get very good documentation from whoever designed the interface and management software (and now the information may be lost). Spending more money on that documentation up front would have likely left them in a lot better situation today.
- pjc50 11y ago"We'd like documentation on this proprietary interface. How much does that cost?" "No." "What do you mean?" "That's our proprietary IP and not for sale."
- EvanAnderson 11y agoThen choose a different vendor. I gotta believe McLaren had a healthy gross profit margin on these vehicles and could just shovel money at the problem. I also find it hard to believe that only a single vendor could provide what they needed. Based on my experience I'd blame lack of foresight before I'd blame physical impossibility.
- gaius 11y agoI've been in this situation. You arrange for a law firm to hold a copy of the code in escrow, to be released to the customer only if the company ceases to exist. Pointless of course IMHO since they'd also need a complete replica of your build environment etc etc but many customers insisted on it anyway, and we billed them for it, everyone's a winner!
- pjc50 11y agoIndeed, the required knowledge usually extends far beyond the code. How does escrow work in the event of acquishutdown ?
- gaius 11y agoI'm sure the lawyers billed sufficient hours to cover all eventualities - but when we were acquired, our product replaced the acquiring-company's product in the same space, and all our customers came with us, so it was never needed in the end.
- ovi256 11y agoJust as well as a backup procedure without a tested restore procedure. You just don't know until you try to restore.