Chapter 6 explicitly addresses SOA and modularity. It builds on the idea of "architecture all the way down" discussed in Chapter 3 (available for download below). In fact, if you look at Figure 3.2 in the excerpt, you'll see where modularity fits within the context of SOA. Modules tend to be finer-grained than services. Modules are a
unit of intraprocess reuse. Services are coarser-grained than modules and are a unit of interprocess reuse. A service is composed of several modules.
In general, I find that teams spend quite a bit of time designing service interfaces, but don't spend enough time design service implementations. The result, as I like to say, is that within each service awaits a rotting design. Modularity increases the quality of the service implementation.
Visit the book's website at
modularity.kirkk.com where you can review all 18
patterns and download an excerpt of the book. There is also a
mobile web application available that you can take with you wherever you go.
--kirk
Twitter: @pragkirk