Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for providing a programming model for modular development. A definition feature is provided that allows a definition to be specified for a particular method that is part of an application. A production feature allows a functionality implementation to be specified for the particular method separately from the definition. A consumption feature allows a method call to be made indirectly to the functionality implementation of the particular method by referencing the definition of the particular method from a consuming method. The consuming method has no awareness of the functionality implementation for the particular method. An analysis process inspects components containing indirect associations between these consumers and producers of application functionality to generate a graph of direct associations between the consumers and producers without having to actually load the components. A loader process uses the graph of direct associations to run the application.