A method for designing a software program including multiple modules includes defining an initialization sequence wherein each of the modules is initialized according to a predetermined order. The method also includes defining calling order constraints wherein a first module may call a second module if the first module succeeds the second module in the allowed order. The method also includes creating a program specification for the software program. The program specification includes a module specification for each of the modules and each module specification indicates other modules called by an implementation of the module. According to one aspect, one of a plurality of initialization sequences is selected based upon the presence of one or more markers in a memory.