Modularity can have a negative as well as a positive effect. a program that is overmodularized performs its operations in very small modules, so a reader has trouble acquiring an overall perspective on what the system is trying to do. that is, although it may be easy to determine what individual modules do and what small groups of modules do, it is not easy to understand what they do in their entirety as a system. suggest an approach that can be used during program development to provide this perspective.