I would also be willing the bet that the build/ops team wrote their puppet scripts to mirror the current way that the application was configured and deployed (s

I would also be willing the bet that the build/ops team wrote their puppet scripts to mirror the current way that the application was configured and deployed (shittily). To really make configuration management work, you need to need to have sane process and architecture in place. Otherwise, you're just adding a layer of abstraction with a little automation sprinkled in, to an already shitty situation. When configuration is done correctly, with an application that has solid architecture and configuration methodologies, configuration management can be incredibly beautiful. I've seen it done well, and it can be light yrs ahead of what basic bash or powershell scripting can do for you.