On the criteria to be used in decomposing systems into modules
The work
| Authors | David Lorge Parnas |
|---|---|
| Type | article |
| Year | 1972 |
| Citekey | parnas1972criteria |
Where it appeared
| Published in | Communications of the ACM |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 12 |
| Pages | 1053--1058 |
Identifiers
| DOI | 10.1145/361598.361623 |
|---|---|
| OpenAlex | W2134119432 |
Access
| Free full text | https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/361598.361623 |
|---|---|
| Landing page | https://doi.org/10.1145/361598.361623 |
Abstract
This paper discusses modularization as a mechanism for improving the flexibility and comprehensibility of a system while allowing the shortening of its development time. The effectiveness of a "modularization" is dependent upon the criteria used in dividing the system into modules. A system design problem is presented and both a conventional and unconventional decomposition are described. It is shown that the unconventional decompositions have distinct advantages for the goals outlined. The criteria used in arriving at the decompositions are discussed. The unconventional decomposition, if implemented with the conventional assumption that a module consists of one or more subroutines, will be less efficient in most cases. An alternative approach to implementation which does not have this effect is sketched.
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How it got here
| How it got here | agent via openalex |
|---|---|
| Added | 2026-08-05 00:00 UTC |
| Approved by | a person 2026-08-09 12:29 UTC |
Filed under
Cite it as
@article{parnas1972criteria,
title = {On the criteria to be used in decomposing systems into modules},
author = {David Lorge Parnas},
year = {1972},
journal = {Communications of the ACM},
volume = {15},
number = {12},
pages = {1053--1058},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
doi = {10.1145/361598.361623},
}
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