Object-oriented technology: getting beyond the hype

These days, everyone in the Information Systems (IS) world is talking about object-oriented technology --- known as "OO" to its aficionados. The enthusiasm about OO has even reached the mainstream press (Hammonds, 1991) and executives are hearing success stories about dramatic productivity gains and "programming with lego blocks" (Hammonds, 1991). Within IS, some people are talking about an OO "revolution" that will dramatically change how IS does its work and which has the potential to eliminate or significantly reduce IS staffs.All this hype is putting IS managers under pressure to get on the OO bandwagon. Once again, managers are being asked to make critical decisions about an unproven technology. On the one hand, IS is actively looking for new ways of improving its quality and productivity. On the other hand, managers know from bitter experience the problems and costs of introducing a new technology. This paper attempts to look critically, beyond the hype, at the current state of OO technology to identify the issues managers must face in making decisions about using it in their organizations.In order to explore and assess what IS organizations are doing with OO technology, the authors convened a focus group of senior IS managers from ten leading Canadian firms representing five industry sectors: retailing, manufacturing, banking, communications, and insurance. Group members were asked to speak about their current encounters with OO, the benefits and problems they have experienced to date, and other issues they are dealing with surrounding the introduction of OO technology in their organizations. This paper first gives a brief overview of OO technology and its relationship to other IS technologies. It then evaluates the key benefits and problems organizations can expect in introducing and using OO. Finally, it attempts to answer some key questions about how and when to introduce OO in an organization.