The Benefits of Object Oriented Development: Toward a Framework for Evaluation

This paper describes the initial efforts to explore the benefits of OO development by describing a framework for categorizing benefits based on phases of system development and by level of analysis. The level of analysis of OO benefits can be the enterprise level, the project level, and the individual developer level. The framework was tested by conducting structured interviews with information systems professionals to assess their perceptions of the reasons for selecting OO technology and OO benefits at the three levels of analysis. The initial results indicate that OO is selected for use for a variety of reasons, but primarily because of perceived productivity benefits. The greatest benefit is thought to be at the enterprise level or project level, with fewer benefits for the individual programmer. Of the benefits often mentioned in the literature, OO being a more natural way of thinking for developers did not appear to be supported.