The Promise and the Cost of Object Technology: A Five-Year Forecast.

Object-oriented techniques for analysis, design, and construction of software systems have been espoused with fervor in the computing literature. Advocates cite successes in a wide variety of applications, from graphical user interfaces and distributed databases to large-scale financial simulations. Object technology (OT) offers several advantages that map well to recent changes in the industrial marketplace. As priorities shift to emphasize speed and responsiveness to market conditions, traditional software engineering methodologies like the, so-called "water-fall model" fall short. Object orientation (OO), on the other hand, makes it possible to model systems that are very close in structure to their real-world analogues. The objective of OO design is to identify accurately the principal roles in an organization or process, assign responsibilities to each of those roles, and define the circumstances under which roles interact with one another. Each role is encapsulated in the form of an object. INSETS: Glossary of Object Acronyms.;Is Object Technology Still "Emerging"?.