In part the book creates and motivates the notion of metamodelling and how it can be used to standardise the creation of industry-strength design. At its heart, the book presents an analysis of the main object-oriented design methodologies, including: Booch, OMT, Coad, and Martin/Odell. Based on these descriptions, a proposal is made for a core metamodel framework into which the leading methodologies may be fitted. As a result, software engineers and software managers will find this a valuable "road map" in the future development of software standards.