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One of the best ways to improve the quality and reduce the cost of software is to increase software reuse. One of the best technologies for increasing software reuse is object-oriented programming. Languages like C++ are making object-oriented programming accessible to more people, but many do not realize the impact that increasing reuse can have on the software development process. Reusable software is easy to use, but hard to produce. Object-oriented programming decreases the time spent coding and debugging, but increases the proportion of time spent designing. Object-oriented programming can have a big pay-off, but like all new technologies it has costs and risks, and the most successful uses of object-oriented programming are by those who are aware of the potential problems.

How shall we improve the quality and reliability of the software we produce? We believe that the critical factor is an understanding how software is constructed, and why it is constructed in that way. Once something is understood, we can begin to build better tools to support and mold the process. This paper outlines a view of how the software process proceeds, why it proceeds that way, and how we can use this perspective to build better tools.