Revolution or Evolution: A Comparison of Object-Oriented and Structured Systems Development Methods

This paper examines the changes engendered when moving from a structured to an object-oriented systems development approach and reconciles the differing views concerning whether this represents an evolutionary or revolutionary change. Author co-citation analysis is used to elucidate the ideational and conceptual relationships between the two approaches. The difference in conceptual distance at the analysis and design level compared to that at the programming level is explained using Henderson's framework for organizational change. The conceptual shift during analysis and design is considered architectural, whereas for programming it is deemed merely incremental. The managerial implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for improving the likelihood of success in the adoption of object-oriented systems development methods are provided.

[1]  Frederick P. Brooks,et al.  No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering , 1987 .

[2]  Mahesh H. Dodani,et al.  Object-Oriented Shock Therapy , 1996, Journal of object-oriented programming.

[3]  H. James Nelson,et al.  Exploring the Difficulties of Learning Object-Oriented Techniques , 1997, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[4]  John C. Smart,et al.  Mapping intellectual structure of a scientific subfield through author cocitations , 1990, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[5]  Brian Henderson-Sellers,et al.  A Book Of Object-Oriented Knowledge , 1992 .

[6]  Susan Lilly.  The structure of software revolutions (and the difficulty of teaching them) , 1993 .

[7]  J. Mann,et al.  Aha' Experiences in Object-Oriented Education: Searching for a Theoretical Foundation , 1997 .

[8]  John D. McGregor,et al.  Understanding object-oriented: a unifying paradigm , 1990, CACM.

[9]  Cherri M. Pancake,et al.  The promise and the cost of object technology: a five-year forecast , 1995, CACM.

[10]  Ivar Jacobson,et al.  The Unified Modeling Language User Guide , 1998, J. Database Manag..

[11]  Sean B. Eom,et al.  The Contributions of Organizational Science to the Development of Decision Support Systems Research Subspecialties , 1996, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[12]  Russel L. Winder,et al.  A Design Method for Object-Oriented Programming , 1989, ECOOP.

[13]  Richard T. Dué,et al.  OBJECT-ORIENTED TECHNOLOGY: The Economics of a New Paradigm , 1993 .

[14]  Grady Booch,et al.  Object Solutions: Managing the Object-Oriented Project , 1995 .

[15]  Ivar Jacobson,et al.  The Unified Software Development Process , 1999 .

[16]  Mary J. Culnan,et al.  Mapping the Intellectual Structure of MIS, 1980-1985: A Co-Citation Analysis , 1987, MIS Q..

[17]  Mary J. Culnan,et al.  The intellectual development of management information systems, 1972-1982: a co-citation analysis , 1986 .

[18]  Joey F. George,et al.  Modern Systems Analysis and Design , 1996 .

[19]  Brian Henderson-Sellers,et al.  Object-oriented development and functional decomposition , 1991 .

[20]  Terry Quatrani.  Visual modelling with Rational Rose 2000 and UML , 1998 .

[21]  Sridhar P. Nerur.  Paradigmatic issues in software development: the case of object-orientation , 1995 .

[22]  Howard D. White,et al.  Author cocitation: A literature measure of intellectual structure , 1981, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[23]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Organizational Environments , 1986 .

[24]  John C. Smart,et al.  Mapping intellectual structure of a scientific subfield through author cocitations , 1990, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[25]  Ramkumar Ramaswamy.  Mentoring Object-Oriented Projects , 2001, IEEE Softw..

[26]  David E. Y. Sarna,et al.  Think objects?: think big , 1995 .

[27]  Setrag Khoshafian,et al.  Object orientation: concepts, languages, databases, user interfaces , 1990 .

[28]  Ivar Jacobson,et al.  The object advantage - business process reengineering with object technology , 1994 .

[29]  Kim B. Clark,et al.  Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of , 1990 .

[30]  Grady Booch,et al.  Object-Oriented Design with Applications , 1990 .

[31]  Francis J. Gouillart,et al.  Transforming the Organization , 1995 .

[32]  Robert L. Glass,et al.  A Snapshot of Systems Development Practice , 1999 .

[33]  Katherine W. McCain,et al.  Mapping authors in intellectual space: A technical overview , 1990, Journal of the American Society for Information Science.

[34]  Helen Sharp,et al.  Capturing Successful Practices on OT Education and Training , 1998, J. Object Oriented Program..

[35]  Katherine W. McCain,et al.  Longitudinal author cocitation mapping: The changing structure of macroeconomics , 1984, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[36]  Terry Quatrani.  Visual modeling with Rational Rose 2000 and UML (2nd ed.) , 2000 .