David Stutz has a short article on software as pliable building material. Whilst not a specific goal for WSE, we certainly made a conscious decision to open up the product so that it could be used in lots of different ways. You can use it as a complete solution, just pull out the core (the Pipeline) or bite off useful bits and pieces (it's X509 support or it's DIME support). We've had some good success with this approach as it's allowed us to tackle customer problems that more rigid products would have struggled with. Of course, we're lucky in that we don't have to play by the same rules as most other products since we have a shorter support period and can make breaking changes across major releases; more "platform" oriented products have to think a lot more carefully in this area as any decision will haunt them for 7 years.
Posted by herveyw at September 29, 2003 11:41 PM