That's similar to how I'm tending towards. Controllers shouldn't contain the actual business logic, that's for the application layer. Controller -> Application

That's similar to how I'm tending towards. Controllers shouldn't contain the actual business logic, that's for the application layer. Controller -> Application Objects -> Model -> View -> Controller That way, the 'web page' controller can be replaced by a 'web service' controller or a 'command line' controller and the application logic remains untouched. Spaghetti controllers are a result of not separating concerns. I also agree with your event compromise. There are always going to be events that need to be broadcast systemwide (logout), but they should be limited. I've been toying with using a message queue instead of events, it may work, it may not...