1. Purpose of the gate
The platform definition is the contract between the platform team and the products that will use it. It says what every product gets from the common core, which differences the platform will support through planned variation points, and which differences each product must add for itself. Once approved, it is the basis for the roadmap, the reference architecture and the reuse targets every derivative is measured against.
Getting this balance wrong is costly either way. A common core that is too small leaves each derivative doing most of the work again. A core that tries to cover every product's wishes becomes large, slow to verify and hard to change. The review should see that the variation points were chosen from real product differences and that each one has a cost the team understands.
The gate criteria are: products served by the platform listed with their main differences; common core and variation points reviewed; reuse targets agreed for the first products; and open definition issues tracked.
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