(desireable) property of a system, such that individual components can be examined, modified and maintained independently of the remainder of the system Objective is that changes in one part of a system should not lead to unexpected behaviour in other parts
In a building, the separation of major user areas into zones served by independent mechanical and electrical components; also a characteristic of integrated building systems, in which repetitive use of components and subsystems facilitates facility maintenance and repair
Dividing a system up into chunks or modules of a relatively uniform size (2) See also Cohesion, Coupling
A force design methodology that establishes a means to provide interchangeable, expandable, and tailorable force elements
Ensures that, for the particular task at hand, the data will be collected and stored in an appropriate manner - which differs greatly from one level of activity (simply gathering the raw data) to another (storing analyzed data) and from one type of high- throughput system to another The best system is one that employs integration at those levels where it is an advantage but maintains enough modularity to ensure that (1) there are no major compromises regarding how any one type of data is handled and, (2) all the key elements in a researcher's information system can be adjusted or updated independently [CHI Bioinformatics report]