Part 1: I spoke with the Top Shelf Modules team – Susan Rust, Ryan Cross, Rik de Boer, and Karl Scheirer – on November 4, 2013. In part one, we go over the concept behind TSM, the quality and challenges in the Drupal contrib. module space, Drupal 8 and why it is time to upgrade your modules now (!). In part two, we go into more depth about TSM's mission and discuss the sustainability (or otherwise) of Drupal's volunteer-based development model and the various efforts and experiments underway to change, improve, or "fix" it.
Read the full post and see the conversation video at the Acquia Developer Center: https://dev.acquia.com/podcast/109-meet-top-shelf-modules-12-drupal-contributed-module-quality