A hybrid approach to OO development: the SUMMITrak project at TCI
Industry evidence suggests that many purebred object-oriented (OO) software development projects in the industry are failing to meet expectations and are being abandoned in favor of a hybrid approach, where OO tools, technologies, and methodologies are combined with those from the traditional structured system development paradigm. The value of this hybrid approach lies in that it can help organizations leverage their existing traditional system development resources (staff, skills, tools, and project management), while taking advantage of the architectural superiority of OO tools and techniques for timely and cost-effective implementation of large, complex projects. This paper describes the SUMMITrak project at TCI, where such a hybrid approach was deployed successfully to build an enterprise-scale billing system for the cable industry. Our study provides a proof of concept that a hybrid approach is not only feasible, but in fact, may be desirable for many enterprise-scale projects.
structured systems development object-oriented system development software engineering