[epscylonb]

I'm pretty much convinced that the big problem today in software is deciding where your APIs should go.

My instincts are similar to the articles author, a preference for small discrete pieces software rather than a giant monolithic application. More Web Services!, if you will.

But you are correct, getting this sweet spot is hard. Truth be told, I am not even sure experience guarantees a successful design first time around.

There is a tendency with developers to want to keep everything nice and clean. For example app A is responsible for a data set, anytime other apps want to access it they have to talk to A, if they are asking for that data a lot you might be better off caching or periodically copying the data over to the parts of the system. I always try to decide whether to segment something by thinking about how many calls it is likely to receive as a web service, more than a couple in short succession and I start having doubts.

Ultimately what makes the entire system work best for users is the correct thing to do and sometimes it is very difficult to come up with something which does that and is pleasing to the discerning coders eye.