Back to basics: modularity

Some typical problems in software

• Difficult to: understand, maintain and modify
• Long development times

David Parnas addressed modularity as one of the key concepts to avoid them.

Expected Benefits of Modular Programming by D.L. Parnas (1972)

The benefits expected of modular programming are:

(1) managerial--development time should be shortened because separate groups would work on each module with little need for communication: (2) product flexibility- it should be possible to make drastic changes to one module without a need to change others; (3) comprehensibility-it should be possible to study the system one module at a time. The whole system can therefore be better designed because it is better understood.

D.L. Parnas; Communications of the ACM; 1972