The emergence of distributed object technology makes CBE an imperative requirement for organizations. Distributed object technology, following either the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard or the Microsoft Distributed Common Object Model (DCOM) specification, separates the object interfaces from the actual processes that implement the object's operations. Distributed objects can reside as location transparent entities anywhere across the enterprise. Distributed objects are essentially objects with a client/server capability. By utilizing distributed object technology, class-teams can construct reusable class components that exist as separate entities from the client code that accesses them. The key point is that the class-team can also exist as a separate organizational entity from the teams that are responsible for building the client code and functionality. It is through this kind of organizational segregation, along class-boundaries, that the class-based organization is highly flexible, and hence polymorphic.
Distributed objects advertise their operations to prospective clients in the enterprise. Data entities and functions are disaggregated into their respective classes rather than being intertwined together as in closed-model systems. Classes are constructed as reusable software components. Distributed objects represent represent the working gears of the class-based machine.
Distributed Object technology must be managed from an enterprise-wide orientation. Before the natural forces of organizational entropy and disorder prevail, leading to the proliferation of redundantly competing versions of the same class components, firms have the opportunity to establish an enterprise-wide object architecture and development policy that delegates responsibility for managing specific classes to accountable units, the class-teams. By gravitatng towards a Class-Based organization early in the process, firms will be able to assert proper management control to ensure that standards are effectively defined, class collaborations are orchestrated to reflect the Strategic Object Model, and changes to class operations are initiated in a controlled manner. Management control and bottom-up innovation do not have to be incongruent with each other. The implementation details still remain within the jurisdiction of the class-team. Interfaces and the specific technical details of their individual signatures are however, the domain of Object Administration and management. Implementation coordination is also more effectively performed when representatives of each major class-team congregate to discuss schedules, task dependencies, and installation procedures.
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