Modularity Matters: Making Products Open Is Only Half the Battle

In order to achieve the full benefit of the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA), products must be both open and modular. In conjunction with openness, a strong focus on modularity brings benefits in the form of reduced development and integration costs, by scoping products that are optimally reusable and easily integrable. This chapter discusses the concepts and benefits of systematically finding well-scoped groupings of functionality, which are designed to be integrated efficiently and to maximize potential reusability – all in the pursuit of achieving modularity. This methodology can not only guide the decision-making for program office and procurement managers, but, perhaps more importantly, it can also provide an objective and traceable justification for their decisions.