Patent ID: 8060865

Claim:
A method with regard to a computer software construct having a plurality of components and built according to an architecture designed for the construct, the architecture including a number of predefined partitions and predefined dependency rules, each partition corresponding to one of a plurality of partition strategies for having at least one component associated therewith, each dependency rule regarding whether a component of one partition may refer to any component of another partition, the method for enforcing the dependency rules of the architecture on each component of the construct as built, and comprising: assigning each component of the plurality of components to a particular partition of the predefined partitions of each of the plurality of partition strategies using a required specifying action to specify the assignment, each component assigned to one and only one partition of each of one or more of the plurality of partition strategies; recording the assignment of each component; receiving a command to build a particular component of the software construct based on corresponding source code, build instructions, and the predefined dependency rules; determining whether the assignment of the particular component to the particular partition is properly specified; determining whether the particular component of the software construct and of a particular partition violates any predefined dependency rule by improperly referring to another component of another partition; and building the particular component of the software construct only if the particular component has been assigned to one and only one partition of each of one or more of the plurality of partition strategies and the assignment of the particular component is properly specified and only if the particular component violates none of the dependency rules.