The present invention relates to a coordination-centric framework for implementing a software system in a distributed computing environment. In a presently preferred embodiment the software system is a software design environment having authoring, synthesis, and debugging tools. The coordination-centric framework is flexible enough to interconnect tools and robust enough that tool designers can use it for all aspects of tool interconnection without requiring costly workarounds. The coordination-centric framework uses modular and reusable software elements and standardized interfaces to connect the software elements.