Purpose of the Workshop

The OOPSLA'98 Mid-Year Workshop on Applied Object Technology for Transitioning to Object Technology (tots) will provide a forum for experienced practitioners to share their insights on the transitioning of organizations to object technology.

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

Object Technology is reasonably mature and is therefore no longer a high risk endeavor. The benefits of Object Technology are also widely acknowledged. Yet many organizations still resist the adoption of OT, or worse yet, fail in the adoption effort. Because of these seemingly incongruous observations, many companies are paying more attention to the PROCESS of "Transitioning to Object Technology." This workshop is specifically targeted to individuals charged with facilitating the successful adoption of object technology within their organization, or researchers considering some aspect of the problem of the "diffusion of innovation".

More information about the event on the Workshop Homepage

Several of the organizers of this workshop have been involved in a series of previous Object Technology Center (OTC) Workshops on related themes sponsored by COMSOFT(http://www.comsoft.org). A number of these workshops were conducted as OOPSLA workshops. We encourage participants in these earlier workshops to submit position papers to the 1998 Midyear Workshop.

GOALS AND FOCUS

The goals of this series of workshops are to establish a mature, experience-based understanding of effective ways to reduce the risk of transitioning to object technology. Examples of specific issues that the workshop might address include the following:

Organization, mission, and funding of Object Technology Centers
Peopleware - How to teach an old dog new tricks.
Managing expectations
Recruiting and retention
Diffusion of innovation
Levels of OT adoption, phased adoption plans
Metrics for OT and reuse
Software development culture
Reuse examples and issues
Effective deployment of OT
Role of Tools and development environments for OT
OT methodology and process
Education on OT and its culture
When to use OT
Success and failure factors and examples
Problems in managing OT
Business object models
Standards for OT
OT Training Models for en-masse Propogation
Content (Curriculum) of Training Required
OT Vendor Alignment Strategies
OT Tool Evaluation Strategies, Issues and Risk Reduction
Role of Change Management (Project and Organizational Levels)
Role of SEI/CMM in Emerging Technology deployment (like OT)
Funding Models (the business Engine)
OT Architectures, complexities and associated Risks to the OT Program

GENERAL STRUCTURE OF THE WORKSHOP

July 19 - Current projects and status
July 20 - Future directions and research
July 21 - Consensus summation and organization of proceedings

REQUIREMENTS FOR ATTENDANCE

Participants must submit short (1-4 pages) position papers. Papers must be on specific issues faced by an organization transitioning to object technology and how such issues are addressed by new strategies and groups such as corporate Object Technology Centers. We seek participants with experience and ideas on how to migrate from legacy practices and environments to an OO software development paradigm.

DATES

Position papers must be submitted by by April 27, 1998 (extended*). Early submissions encouraged. Participants will be selected and notified by May 15, 1998.

Papers should be submitted to:

Jared A. Bruckner,
DSc Associate Dean - School of Computing - Southern Adventist University
Assistant Director - Comsoft
(423) 238-2935 Voice, (423) 238-2234 FAX, (423) 614-3431
P.O. Box 370
Collegedale, TN 37315
bruckner@southern.edu

Organizers

Jared A. Bruckner,
DSc Associate Dean - School of Computing - Southern Adventist University
Assistant Director - Comsoft
bruckner@southern.edu
423.238.2935

Chuck Durrett
CEO, The WebBook Company
Principal, Emergentcies Consulting
cdurrett@worldnet.att.net
248.645.6840

Timothy D. Korson,
Senior partner, Software Architects
Executive Director, Comsoft
korson@comsoft.org
423.238.3288

Paul Richards
Business Leader/Object Engineer
EDS Leading Technologies and Method/Intelligent and Object Systems
5555 New King Street,
Troy, MI 48098
paul.richards@eds.com
248-696-3016