What is modularity? And how to achieve modularity?

1. What is modularity?

Modularity in software engineering refers to the process of dividing software into various components that work together to form a single functioning item. In modular programming, modularity refers to the compartmentalization and interrelation of the parts of a software package. Modularity specifies the separation of concerned ‘components’ of the software which can be addressed and named separately. These separated components are referred to as ‘modules’. These modules can be integrated to satisfy the requirement of other software.

2. The importance of modularity.

Modularity is important in software engineering because it helps in reducing the complexity of software or projects. The basic principle of modularity is that “Systems should be built from cohesive, loosely coupled components (modules)” which means a system should be made up of different components that are united and work together in an efficient way and such components have a well-defined function.

Modular decomposability is the process of breaking down a problem into different sub-problems in a systematic manner. Solving a large problem is difficult sometimes, so the decomposition helps in reducing the complexity of the problem, and sub-problems created can be solved independently. This helps in achieving the basic principle of modularity.
Modular composability means to assemble the modules into a new system that means to connect the combine the components into a new system.
Modular understandability means to make it easier for the user to understand each module so that it is very easy to develop software and change it as per requirement. Sometimes it’s not easy to understand the process models because of its complexity and its large size in structure. Using modularity understandability, it becomes easier to understand the problem in an efficient way without any issue.

3. How to achieve modularity?

To achieve modularity, software needs to be divided into different components that can work independently, have a well-defined function, and can be named separately. These components are called ‘modules’ and can be integrated to satisfy the requirement of other software. Modularization is the process of breaking down software into multiple independent modules where each module is developed separately.
To achieve modularity, the internal implementation details of a module must be shielded from the module’s external environment. The external environment being the aggregate of all other modules, the underlying runtime and higher-level services. The only permissible interactions between the module and its host ‘environment’ are then via the module’s public interfaces.
To achieve modularity, you have to be conscious at all the stages of software development such as the architectural design phase where the large-scale structure of the software is determined. You have to be very careful while creating modularity at this phase as you have to understand the entire logical structure of the software. If you have created modularity in the architectural design of the software it becomes easy to figure out and design the individual components. The modular components have a well-defined purpose and they have a few connections with the other components.

4. Summary

In summary, modularity in software engineering refers to the process of dividing software into various components that work together to form a single functioning item. It helps in reducing the complexity of software or projects and allows development of software to be divided into several components that can be implemented simultaneously by the team of developers. While modularity can reduce the cost required to develop software, it is important to be careful while modularizing the software. Modularity can improve manageability, coherence, flexibility and reusability of software.