In all the computing magazines you read about how software integrators are embracing object technology. Object based systems involve small, interoperable software components which integrators can use to easily tailor customer-specific solutions. Object-based solutions are adaptible and easy to maintain compared to monolithic systems based on procedural programming. Also, objects work nicely over networks and they are an integral part of the Internet revolution that is making your Web browser your desktop, a rich control surface that will put unlimited access to information at your fingertips. Interface specifications for geoprocessing Objects use common interfaces to achieve their magic.
Every object understands certain magic words which evoke certain behaviours.
Software interfaces are essentially agreed-upon magic words that software developers embed in their software to make it interoperate with other software. Vendors are building these into products that integrators can use as geospatial building blocks in the information systems they construct for their government clients. Before building an object-based system, a good integrator works with the client to model the work flow which the objects are to enable. It is wise to spend a long time thinking in the abstract about an organization's mission and all of its inputs and outputs before building a system. If the model is right at the highest level, it has a good chance of being right at successively lower levels.