Introducing shareable frameworks into a procedural development environment

Typically, an IBM midrange-oriented independent software vendor such as the Dutch company Consist B.V. is not a leader in using new technology. Such companies prefer to use stable, proven technology environments to create and sell their products rather than take the risk of using new, unproven technologies. Consist B.V. has been known for over 20 years in the Benelux market for delivering stable applications and investing only in proven technology. Why is it, then, that they now invest large sums of money in new technologies such as framework-based development, Java™, CORBA™, and object-oriented programming? This paper describes the business reasons that influenced Consist B.V. to make this shift in its strategy and the way in which the traditional procedurally oriented development organization is changed into an object-oriented, framework-using software factory. Apart from the technical implications and the steep learning curve associated with using these technologies, some attention is also given to the human resource management aspects of the organization.