Software vendors love to preach best practices. Emphasys is no exception. The firm offers extensive training on how clients should extend and modify Elite—documenting changes, following governance procedures, testing rigorously. Sensible stuff.

Yet Emphasys itself does not always practice what it preaches. Its own modifications and extensions to Elite can drift from its published guidelines. The result? A cautionary tale familiar to any organization that has customized software: when Emphasys releases a scheduled update to Elite, changes made by PHA's and their consultants (or indeed by Emphasys itself) may require re-testing and rework. What worked yesterday may break tomorrow. With little warning.

The irony is sharp but instructive. Even those who write the rules can struggle to follow them, particularly when deadlines loom or requirements shift. The lesson for PHAs is clear: document everything, assume nothing will survive a major release unchanged, and budget time accordingly. And perhaps take Emphasys training with a pinch of salt—not because the advice is wrong, but because even the experts find it difficult to follow consistently.

In software, as in life, the gap between theory and practice remains stubbornly wide.