Résumé : The TALYS Evaluated Nuclear Data Library (TENDL) has now 8 releases since 2008. Considerable experience has been acquired for the production of such general-purpose nuclear data library based on the feedback from users, evaluators and processing experts. The backbone of this achievement is simple and robust: completeness, quality and reproducibility. If TENDL is extensively used in many fields of applications, it is necessary to understand its strong points and remaining weaknesses. Alternatively, the essential knowledge is not the TENDL library itself, but rather the necessary method and tools, making the library a side product and focusing the efforts on the evaluation knowledge. The future of such approach will be discussed with the hope of nearby greater success.