A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for collecting coverage data. In one embodiment, a method is provided for collecting coverage data for a code portion which, when compiled and linked, becomes a module of a program. The method comprises configuring the code portion settings such that when the module is instrumented coverage data will be gathered for the module; and instrumenting the code portion according to the settings and only for those statements for which no coverage data exists. Coverage data can then be collected, for example, each instance the module is executed, each instance the module is executed as part of a particular program, or each instance the module is executed by a particular user.