{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/break-a-dependency-before-optimizing-inside-it",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9143",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Break a dependency before optimizing inside it",
  "summary": "Coupling can dominate local efficiency.",
  "kind": "heuristic",
  "body": "Before squeezing another few percent from a component, test whether removing, stabilizing or making asynchronous a dependency would reduce larger coordination and waiting costs.",
  "limits": [
    "Modularity trades coordination inside a boundary for coordination across interfaces. Do not split systems simply to make diagrams or org charts look cleaner."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-systems-strategy-and-leverage-thinking"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-6F01EE9805D9E655"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "Simon described complex systems as often hierarchical and near-decomposable, motivating analysis of relatively strong within-subsystem interactions and weaker cross-subsystem interactions.",
      "source_id": "RS-6F01EE9805D9E655",
      "role": "contextualizes",
      "note": "Near decomposability is a conceptual property, not evidence that any chosen boundary is correct.",
      "locator": "Near-decomposability discussion"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "When local performance tuning keeps failing because every change waits on another component or organization."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "Modularity trades coordination inside a boundary for coordination across interfaces. Do not split systems simply to make diagrams or org charts look cleaner."
  ],
  "example": "A team spends days coordinating a synchronous approval for a task that takes minutes; decoupling the approval path matters more than optimizing the task.",
  "check": "The selected optimization targets the larger end-to-end cost rather than the most visible local step.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-6F01EE9805D9E655",
      "title": "The Architecture of Complexity",
      "url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/985254"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9143",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9144",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/keep-reversible-experiments-behind-a-boundary"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-28D91C30CEA1CB4A",
      "title": "Systems and strategic leverage: feedback, flow, modularity, robust options, and information value",
      "url": "/collections/systems-and-strategic-leverage-feedback-flow-modularity-robust-options-and-information-value"
    }
  ]
}