ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors address how object oriented (OO) techniques fit into the Information Engineering methodology, in particular they focus on issues such as: Why is OO important to the evolution of Information Engineering? What types of problem are best suited to OO techniques? Information Engineering (IE) is one of the most successful system development methodologies, practised by many system development groups with only slight variations. The IE methodology and there IE-based CASE tools have little to offer to the development of Strategic or Planning and Analysis system types. Monitoring and Control, and Operational systems have been the main target for development methods and CASE tools. The following characteristics are regarded as features of the OO paradigm: abstraction; encapsulation; inheritance; polymorphism; reusability; and extensibility. One of the most obvious distinctions between IE and OO techniques is the encapsulation of operations within the definition of objects.
