[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]
Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) classes can include zero or more methods, or functions that describe the behavior of the class. Including a method in a class does not guarantee an implementation of the method. The Implemented qualifier is attached to the method to indicate that an implementation is available for the class.
A derived class inherits a method implementation by default, but it can override that implementation. When CIMOM is attempting to invoke a method for a particular instance of a class, CIMOM starts at the lowest subclass in the class hierarchy and works toward the base class searching for the Implemented qualifier. If no implementation is present before the base class is reached, CIMOM invokes the implementation of the base class. Providers of derived classes need to implement a method only if they want to override the implementation of the base class.