Abstract. Because of the increasionf emphasis on distributed object programming for the provision of multimedia telecomunications services, it has become apparent that a unification between the distributed programming environment and techniques for QoS specification in multimedia communications must be made. Various QoS frameworks and QoS reference models have already been established and/or standardised. Each has approached the problem of QoS specification in its own way but it is possible to draw similarities across the board. This paper examines four different approaches to QoS specification and attempts to integrate these ideas into the distributed programming environment (DPE).