Transition to OO?

Paper: 480
Session: P (talk)
Speaker: Schaffer, Arthur, Laboratoire de l'Accelerateur Lineaire,Centre d'Orsay
Keywords: ?


Transition to OO?

Panel Chair: Kors Bos (NIKHEF)


The transition to Object-Oriented software development is recognized to
be difficult for organizations who have a sometimes long tradition in
procedural programming. For large companies like banks or airplane
industries, many of their experiences are reported in the literature or
in books. In High Energy Physics, there are now several groups which have
made this transition, and some which are in the process of changing.
Enough experience should have been collected by now for an evaluation
of the lessons learned by some representative projects. Key questions
addressed by the panelists include

o Choice of method and CASE tool: What are the reasons for the choices
made? What were the expectations, which came true?
o Definition of the software process: To what extent has it been defined
explicitly? Does it include formal review procedures?
o Education and training: Is everybody educated to the same level? Are
there methodologists and programmers? Are training courses or
external consultants available?

It could be expected that the change for HEP is different than for
industry. The goal of this panel is to determine if their are enough
benefits to justify a "Transition to OO", and to identify the critical
success factors for HEP groups which are attempting the change.