Assume that the IS organization of a large manufacturing organization has had a history of successful systems development projects. The company developed and refined its own systems development methodology over the years, initially utilizing traditional structured techniques, and gradually extending to include ideas from the RAD approaches. The company and the IS department have a philosophy of monitoring the best practices carefully, and adopting the best practices when it becomes clear that they would prove beneficial to the organization.

The senior managers and project managers in the IS department have for some time been contemplating the use of the object approach to systems development. Many of the younger staff hired by the IS department in recent years have had at least some exposure to objects, although none of the senior people in the IS shop have used the object oriented approach. Discuss the benefits that can be expected if the company is able to successfully adopt the object approach in their systems development practices. What will be the most significant challenges to this transition? How can the organization improve the odds of a successful transition to the object approach?