Authors:
Elsabé Cloete
and
Aurona Gerber
Affiliation:
School of Computing, University of South Africa, South Africa
Keyword(s):
Systems Engineering Methodologies, System Development Paradigms, Object Oriented Development, Structural Development
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Information Systems Analysis and Specification
;
Methodologies, Processes and Platforms
;
Model-Driven Software Development
;
Software Engineering
;
Systems Engineering
Abstract:
Paradigm contamination occurs where methods from different system development (SD) paradigms are integrated or combined. We investigate the OO and structural SD approaches and concern ourselves with the question of how paradigm contamination can be avoided, especially when developers were initially exposed to structural programming techniques and are now expected to apply an OO approach. By comparing the techniques associated with specific SD approaches, an outline is given of the particular differences and commonalities that regularly cause paradigm contamination. Guidelines for avoiding contamination traps are then provided. This is significant for practitioners enabling them to be aware of the possible contamination pitfalls as well as how to avoid them, and as a result to reap the intended benefits of the chosen SD method.