Seam certainly decreases the amount of abstraction required, but not really by increasing the coupling, but by hiding most of the glue away in the framework (where it belongs) than in the business classes. Seam means that the coupling between the business layer and the presentation layer is low (I mean at some point you have to actually connect the presentation layer and the business layer, no matter how many layers you put in the way). I think it would be fair to say that Seam promotes a simple (i.e. very few layered) design, but still makes possible a traditional layered design (but be prepared for people to go What?? Why??? ;) ). But I'm sure others can write this more eloquently than me :) View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4001963#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...