A system and method for use with an enterprise system or software development system, for determining or checking for dependencies between software components, or between other components of said system. The system utilizes a module architecture specification language and toolkit to check system code for compliance against a set of rules or requisites. The module architecture specification can be structured into product-wide groundrules applicable to all subsystems, subsystem-, layer-, module-specific, and thin-client/server rules. In accordance with one embodiment, the system can be used to allow, forbid, or constrain certain dependencies between software modules, or between the building blocks, organization components, or products that make up a large enterprise system.