Automation and control systems consist of an increasing amount of complex hardware and software. They are difficult to handle due to hard real time restrictions and intensive interaction with the environment. Faced with short product life cycles, the need for appropriate design methods for distributed real-time systems in this application field arises.In this paper we discuss an engineering methodology based on an object-oriented approach and basic services. A rapid- prototyping environment using an open system architecture concept which we developed to cope with the problems of complex control systems is presented. The aspect of task allocation under real time constraints in combination with determining an adequate hardware architecture is analyzed.