Build More Features or More Services

The tradeoff between building more features on existing platforms vs. building more new individual services is always a complex decision. Let’s look at the pros and cons of each.

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PLATFORMS vs. SERVICES vs. INCREMENTAL CHANGE

1. Platforms deliver a broad set of horizontal or vertical services
2. Services tend to be focused on individual capabilities
3. Features can be added to either, but where to add the feature?
4. Services could be built on top of each other, but then is it a feature or a service?

DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO MAINTAIN A SERVICE FOREVER?

1. Should you ever deprecate a service (e.g. turn it off, not be backwards compatible)?
2. Can you leave the service “on” if nobody is using it?
3. When do you decide to build a new service instead of just extending or improving another one? 
4. Do you have to create tools to migrate from one service to another?
5. Do you have to create interoperability from one service to another?
6. At what point have you added too many features to a platform (or service) to where the market (or internal customers) think that it’s too heavy - even when features don’t have to be used?

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