Coarse-grained vs. fine-grained

In computing, these concepts refer to the level of detail at which a system, configurations, security management, and others are broken down into smaller parts.

Fine-grained: It refers to smaller parts of a system, such as files, columns, rows, methods, and attributes of a class. For instance, authorization configuration can refer to specific files, columns, rows, and time intervals.

• Pros: More precision in security, analysis, systems, and architectures
• Cons: The management and operations are more complex to handle.

Coarse-grained: It refers to the main components of a system, such as tables, databases, monolithic applications, classes in a solution, roles, and so on.

• Pros: reduced complexity when managing a system, security, analysis, etc.
• Cons: As the expression says, “The devil is in the details”. An important small part missed can become a wider problem later.