The Object-Oriented Technology; Process Analysis and Cost Estimation o the Software Development

The Object-Oriented Technology (OOT) is expected to faster the software development process industrialization. In fact, it can increase the process productivity and flexibility, requiring a change of the firm management practices. In particular, cost management has to be re-defined according to the OOT peculiar characteristics, introducing changes consistent with the actual OOT spread in software firms. In the paper, the object-oriented software development process is discussed. Then, after the analysis of the results of a survey of Italian software producers aimed to investigate the actual spread and the characteristics of the OOT practices adopted, a model for the cost estimation of the object oriented software development is proposed.