So if this becomes true, it is a break through for Perl in your shop. Try to do everything as perfectly as possible, so more and more chance might come up for Perl in your shop.

You already did the first thing absolutely right: focus on change control.

cvs (or other tools like clear case) for sure. This is always true for all projects, regardless what the development language you use. Not just your Perl source code, but also any document, test data, test script.

Remember that cvs is nothing, if there is no well defined rules of using cvs. Whatever how good the tool is, you can always use it in the wrong way. Especailly with tool like cvs, it is about discipline. If you want I can share with your the change control process in my shop. We have a document for change control, and you obviously need one.

You should allow people to download modules from CPAN and play with them. At the same time, there should be a control point, to determine whether a module can be used in production system.

Try to do an excellent job on code review, and testing.

Good luck!