This book walks COBOL users through the next phase of COBOL: Object-oriented COBOL (OOCOBOL). Written by experts in COBOL programming, Object-Oriented COBOL teaches you how to integrate COBOL with object-oriented methodologies. It provides explanations and roadmaps that will help you understand, navigate, and successfully integrate analysis and design concepts with enabling OOCOBOL constructs. Designed for current COBOL users and based on the authors' experience teaching object-oriented COBOL, Object-Oriented COBOL can be used by COBOL programmers to begin programming effectively with objects in as little as twelve weeks, significantly less than the steep learning curve of twelve to twenty-four months for Smalltalk and C++. Object-Oriented COBOL also includes extensive examples and experiences, written in OOCOBOL, that explain the defining traits of an object-oriented language, such as encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism.