Modularity – Description

The concept of modular systems was introduced in the area of structured programming several decades ago.  It refers to increased manageability of applications with routines coded in separate modules  (Duncan 1995, p. 48).  Modularity in IS expands to the notions of reusability and sharability of both applications and data by isolating and standardizing as many business and systems processes as possible.  In an enterprise system, for example, a “module” refers to the grouping of routine transactional steps to improve efficiency.

According to Duncan (1995), IS organizations can modularize small routine systems processes, such as data calls, to routinely store rules and functions separately from the main application so that they can be more accessible.  Previous research (e.g. Duncan, 1995) demonstrated modularity as one of the qualities that describe technical IT infrastructure flexibility.

Benefits of modularity, with respect to the specific contexts and definitions, can be grouped into three major categories:

System modularity: Benefits of modularity in systems design include better system partitioning and interface definition, increased chances of achieving perceived open system benefits, and a more maintainable system (Leaney et al., 2001; Lehman, 1998; Meyers and Oberndorf, 1997; Parnas and Clements, 1985; Roark and Kiczuk, 1996). 

Process modularity: Benefits of modularity in product design process include increased control by the designer with respect to the degree to which changes in processes or requirements affect the product, more flexibility for the designers to meet changing processes by promoting interchangeability, increased tolerance for delayed design decisions without delaying the product development process, and reduced life-cycle costs by reducing the number of repetitive processes (Gershenson et al., 1999; Ishii, 1995; Shah, 1996; Ulrich et al., 1991).

Product modularity:  Benefits of modular products include component economies of scale, easier product updating, increased product variety, decreased order lead-time, and increased ease of design and testing.

Costs of modularity, on the other hand, include relatively static product architecture, lack of performance optimization, increased unit variable costs, and excessive product similarity (product variety increases, but high similarity among those variations) (Gershenson, Prasad, and Allamneni, 1999; Ulrich et al., 1991).