Over the last 3.5 years, I helped build Core Publisher, NPR's flagship digital product. We started with just an alpha version of core and a single content type; today, we have over 150 public radio stations on board. This case study will start by giving a brief overview of Core Publisher and its features. The talk will then reflect upon the lesson learned along the way, touching upon a number of issues:

Building great teams that write great code
The architectural decisions of a large Drupal project
Addressing and managing technical debt
The pros and cons of an agile process
Choosing custom code vs. contrib
The unique difficulties that Drupal presents to product owners
Infrastructure DOs and DON'Ts
A (relatively) brief list of regrets
Attendees should leave this talk with a broad understanding of the challenges involved in taking on a large Drupal project. (They should also leave with a healthy dose of fear and self-doubt.)