$29.2 INTRODUCTORY COURSES 937 Manager Training principle A training curriculum should include courses for managers as well as software developers. It is unrealistic,for a company or group that is adopting object technology on any scale,to hope to succeed by training developers only.Managers,regardless of the depth of their technical background,must be introduced to the basic O-O ideas and apprised of their repercussions on distribution of tasks,team organization,project lifecycle, economics of software development.The lifecycle discussion of the next chapter and, more exhaustively,management-oriented books such as [Goldberg 1995],[Baudoin 1996] and [M 1995],are typical of the material to be covered in such(usually short)courses. Here is an example of what manager education must include to avoid potential trouble, allow effective development and benefit the bottom line.The industry's measures of productivity are still largely based,deep-down,on ratios of produced code to production effort.In a reuse-conscious software process,you may spend some time improving software elements that already work well to increase their potential for reuse in future projects.This is the generalization task,an important step of the lifecycle model presented in the next chapter.Often,such efforts will remove code,for example because you have given a common ancestor to two originally unrelated classes,moving commonality to that ancestor.In the productivity ratio,the numerator decreases (less code)and the denominator increases(more effort)!Managers must be warned that the old measures do not tell the whole story,and that the extra effort actually improves the software assets of the company.Without such preparation,serious misunderstandings may develop,jeopardizing the success of the best planned technical strategies. 29.2 INTRODUCTORY COURSES Let us turn our attention now to the teaching of object technology in an academic environment(although many observations will also be applicable to industrial training). As the software community recognizes the value of the object-oriented approach,the question increasingly arises of when,where and how to include object-oriented concepts, languages and tools in a software curriculum-university,college or even high school. Phylogeny and ontogeny When should we start? The earlier the better.The object-oriented method provides an excellent intellectual discipline;if you agree with its goals and techniques,there is no reason to delay bringing it to your students;you should in fact teach it as the first approach to software development.Beginning students react favorably to O-O teaching,not because it is trendy, but because the method is clear and effective. This strategy is preferable to a more conservative one whereby you would teach an older method first,then unteach it in order to introduce O-O thinking.If you think object- oriented development is the right way to go,there is no reason to make a detour first.§29.2 INTRODUCTORY COURSES 937 It is unrealistic, for a company or group that is adopting object technology on any scale, to hope to succeed by training developers only. Managers, regardless of the depth of their technical background, must be introduced to the basic O-O ideas and apprised of their repercussions on distribution of tasks, team organization, project lifecycle, economics of software development. The lifecycle discussion of the next chapter and, more exhaustively, management-oriented books such as [Goldberg 1995], [Baudoin 1996] and [M 1995], are typical of the material to be covered in such (usually short) courses. Here is an example of what manager education must include to avoid potential trouble, allow effective development and benefit the bottom line. The industry’s measures of productivity are still largely based, deep-down, on ratios of produced code to production effort. In a reuse-conscious software process, you may spend some time improving software elements that already work well to increase their potential for reuse in future projects. This is the generalization task, an important step of the lifecycle model presented in the next chapter. Often, such efforts will remove code, for example because you have given a common ancestor to two originally unrelated classes, moving commonality to that ancestor. In the productivity ratio, the numerator decreases (less code) and the denominator increases (more effort)! Managers must be warned that the old measures do not tell the whole story, and that the extra effort actually improves the software assets of the company. Without such preparation, serious misunderstandings may develop, jeopardizing the success of the best planned technical strategies. 29.2 INTRODUCTORY COURSES Let us turn our attention now to the teaching of object technology in an academic environment (although many observations will also be applicable to industrial training). As the software community recognizes the value of the object-oriented approach, the question increasingly arises of when, where and how to include object-oriented concepts, languages and tools in a software curriculum – university, college or even high school. Phylogeny and ontogeny When should we start? The earlier the better. The object-oriented method provides an excellent intellectual discipline; if you agree with its goals and techniques, there is no reason to delay bringing it to your students; you should in fact teach it as the first approach to software development. Beginning students react favorably to O-O teaching, not because it is trendy, but because the method is clear and effective. This strategy is preferable to a more conservative one whereby you would teach an older method first, then unteach it in order to introduce O-O thinking. If you think object￾oriented development is the right way to go, there is no reason to make a detour first. Manager Training principle A training curriculum should include courses for managers as well as software developers