Object and component technology allows organisations to accommodate change on a development project. Projects using this technology can take advantage of the key technical benefits such as encapsulation, polymorphism and loose coupling that objects offer. This allows the project to use an iterative development process, enabling the largest system to be built as a series of manageable steps. Each step only delivers what is needed in the short term, relying on the ease of change of the system to accommodate future requirements.
This ability to accept changes on the fly offers a compelling reason to business to accept the use of this technology on development projects. Why then are all projects not undertaken in this fashion? Simply put, because the adoption of object technology is not simple and appears to the organisation to be fraught with challenges.
However, no organisation will ever get to tackle these challenges if a start is not made and in the words of Plato (377 BC) the beginning is the most important part of the work. The first of these challenges is getting started.
This challenge on the road to the implementation of object technology is itself not a technological problem; it is a human or cultural one. We are not the first to identify starting as a challenge. In 1532 Machiavelli wrote: "There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." He could just as well have been addressing the management of corporate IT departments in the latter years of this millennium.
The essence of getting started is overcoming inertia. Inertia is a scientific term describing a characteristic of bodies at rest or in motion, but also defined more generally by Websters as resistance to motion, action, or change. Existing development shops all suffer from inertia to a lesser or greater extent. The shared values and beliefs of group is their culture and their collective resistance to change can be dubbed cultural inertia.
What then is required to overcome cultural inertia and get started with unlocking the potential of object technology? Once again physics has the key; inertia is overcome by applying force against it. This force is known as effort, which in turn is more generally defined as the use of physical or mental energy to do something.
Philosophy aside, each organisation or individual wanting to introduce OO into their development toolbox needs to make an effort. An effort to overcome inertia and begin the change process. Once begun there are many sources of assistance available, but the act of starting has to come from within.
There are a number of origins for this effort in an organisation. The ideal origin would be to start at the very top, with a realisation by business and IT management that object technology has benefits that are desirable and a maturity today that makes it viable. With the authority of their position a well funded and well staffed project could be tasked with the exploration of the new technology and the preparation of the organisation for its adoption. Unfortunately this seldom happens.
Second best would be to start with a development project of sufficient size and autonomy that its project manager has the authority to select the appropriate approach for the development on the project. Object technology is easy to motivate disguised as a modern visual development tool for use on a single important project. This starting point is often available in even the most conservative organisations.
The last category of starting points originates with humble programmers who simply seek a more rewarding and productive way of working. Beginning often as an individual effort, programmers slowly establish a grass-roots movement, sometimes creating informal support groups in their organisations. This starting point is always available, but requires the most individual effort, often over extended periods, to have any effect on inertia.
Regardless of the starting point, to be successful all attempts to introduce object technology require effort and the pursuit of a controlled process of implementation. The process of adoption needs to be planned and managed; it is as much about people and culture as it is about technology. Management on whose shoulders falls the responsibility of driving this change needs to be sensitive to the soft issues that can easily undermine an otherwise successful implementation. Staff need formal training and coaching in the technology and advice and guidance on the effects of change and how to handle these.
With objects, as with life, there are no guarantees for success. One thing is true, however: there is one surefire guarantee for failure and that is not starting. This was understood by John Fitzgerald Kennedy when he said in his 1961 inaugural address, "All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."
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