Background:My bosses want to merge two application that have two separate purposes.One being for monitoring of equipment and bandwidth for our internalnetwork operations.The other is an application to view similar data just less granularand with less detail. This second application has to also performtasks such as generating tokens or creating a splash page that ismeant for the client to use but is generally used by the customerrepresentatives in the company. It also is used by external clients of properties.Does it make sense to merge the two applications? Why or why not. I can understand there is an inherent security flaw with introducing this type of architecture. But is it worth the time to merge these two even if I have to re-code some of it in order to merge the code bases? Also many of the queries and back-end calls are different. They are currently completely separate and stand alone applications. I did explain this to my boss and explained that we will be using the same database, he still wants to merge the code bases. I am also asked to create the whole design.
Merging two applications into one
design;database design;code reuse
I see two distinct questions here:Does the combined functionality make sense?Does the work of converting the two applications to one pass a cost/benefit analysis?The first question should be purely user-driven.  Does it make sense for users to have these two sets of functions together?  Is it likely that some of them want to see a less granular view, and then switch to the more detailed view? And so on.The second question has to do with the actual development work involved.  It could be a huge amount of work with little benefit.  Or it could even save work overall, if the combined application is simpler and more maintainable in the future.  Development work to address security concerns should also be considered as part of this (it is unlikely that there are any insurmountable security issues, but it could be a lot of work to make the combined application secure).We don't have the information to answer these two questions, but it would be helpful for you to consider them separately in deciding how to respond to your boss.If you don't think the combined software meets #1, your response would be something like I am worried that this won't meet the needs of our users/customers, for these reasons:... It is not an objection about the amount of work, but that the end product is not a desirable goal.If you see the benefit of combining the applications in the abstract, but think it is too much work, in my opinion the best response is not to say we shouldn't do this but try to present an estimate of how much effort the project will take.  It is up to your boss to decide cost/benefit, ultimately, but you can provide information to help with this (and highlight the size of the task).Also important is why your boss wants you to do this.  If you don't know, you should try to find out more about the reasons.  Maybe there is a good rationale that you aren't aware of.  Or, maybe the reasons aren't very good, but it will help you have a more informed response. 