PRODUCT PLATFORMS IN SOFTWARE-DEVELOPMENT

The concepts of product families, product plat forms, and derivative p roducts are as applicable to intangible software products as they are to tangible physical products. In both cases, firms can develop a fami ly of products based oil a common platform instead of starring from ze ro every time. Well-designed platform architectures for software produ cts provide productivity benefits and enable rapid growth in market sh are and revenue. In addition, if the developer builds and communicates methods by which others can build modules that operate in or on the u nderlying platform, it can become the standard or basis of large-scale innovation, which provides significant strategic benefits. A product platform is a set of subsystems and interfaces that form a common stru cture from which a stream of derivative products can be efficiently de veloped and produced. The authors present a model of the architecture of software products and offer case examples showing platform design a nd management in action. Software developers adopting the product plat form approach should form a dedicated team, supported by top managemen t, to assess the organization's current situation and future potential . A market segmentation grid allows the ream to document both market i nformation and systems or product status information. in planning a ne w product platform, the team should understand target users' requireme nts; propose a new platform architecture and strategy, propose an impl ementation plan, budget, and rime line; and propose an approach that a llows for the joint design and sharing of platform components and deve lopment processes. Unless companies achieve an effective platform stra tegy, they are likely to face competitive disadvantages. The effort wi ll require new ways of planning, budgeting, and organizing for systems development.