Discovering Objects

Abstract

Software industry pundits predict that soon the object paradigm will emerge as the dominant approach to analyzing, designing, and constructing complex information systems (Orfali, Harkey, & Edwards, 1996). Instead of crafting applications from the traditional building blocks of data and procedures, the new unit of system construction will become the "object"-an integrated package of data and procedures (Cox & Novobilski, 1991; Taylor, 1992).The object-oriented approach to systems development hinges on correctly partitioning the problem domain into the essential classes and objects (Booch, 1994;Graham, 1994). Methodologists and educators alike recognize that such partitioning is not easy (Booch, 1994;Jean & Strohmeier, 1990). Notable design experts, Gamma, Helm, Johnson, and Vlissides (1995), assert: "The hard part about object-oriented design is decomposing a system into objects" (p. 11). Leading object-oriented methodologist, Grady Booch (1994), contends that "identification of classes and objects is the fundamental issue in object-oriented design" (p. 167). 4 4 4 4 4 Vol. 9 No. 3