At some point we split out the console and removed that functionality from the products. Each product ran in the standard console. The console was maintained by one team and only that team.

That console was considered to be a platform. There was an inhouse technology platform under the console. And, there was a Windows platform amoung other third-party platform running under the console as well.

The products were nicely issolated from the platform changes. Layers, adopters, and sublimation got the job done. Modularization simplified the code as well as the interfaces amoung the roadmaps.

I used to work for a company which had two different products targeting two different markets – but had evolved from the same code base.

The CTO for that company wanted to keep the code base the same so that “common features” only had to be done once, instead of twice.

It sounded great in theory, but in practice it made it nearly impossible to plan product releases, prioritize features, prioritize bugs, and so forth. Eventually the releases ended up requiring difficult & painful compromises between the two teams.

Based on that experience, I’d highly recommend separating products that are really separate and are targeted at different markets.

Hope this helps.

- Raj
Accompa – Affordable Requirements Management Software for Product Managers