Abstract: In a family of telecommunications modules or other circuit boards, driver software is divided into a core support package for initializing board components common to the family of circuit boards and one or more extended support packages specific to individual members of the family. This facilitates a reduction in the amount of programming effort needed across the family of circuit boards as the core support package need only be developed once for the family of boards rather than developing complete driver programs for each member of the family. The remaining programming effort can then be focused on the specialized subroutines. In addition, changes in hardware common to each member of the family can be accommodated by redeveloping only the core program. This need only occur once for the entire family, rather than once for each member of the family.