Customer Reviews

Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML : A Practical Approach (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML, A Practical Approach" is perhaps the best book on the market for a down-to-earth, hands-on introduction to the Unified Process. As the title suggests, it leans heavily on the methodology of Ivar Jacobson, one of the three amigos. If you are trying to figure out what to do or where to start, this will point you in the right direction.

Three things in particular I liked about the book:

1. "The Approach in a Nutshell" as well as constant reference back to it.

2. The lists of ten.

3. The chapter on "robustness analysis" showing the transition from analysis to design (always a difficult transition in any methodology). This is the best part of the book in my opinion. It was real "hands-on".

"The Approach in a Nutshell" gives a great overview of the process including milestones, and provides a framework for everything to fit into. As the reader progresses through the book, each chapter summarizes that part of "the approach in a nutshell" that the chapter fits into. If this was the only feature in the book, it would be worth the price.

If you have ever read another series with "lists of ten", these are better. The lists of ten (there are over half-a-dozen) are worth taping up on the walls. They reflect the experience of someone who has been there and done that. The lists of ten alone are worth the price of the book.

The transition from analysis to design has rather heavy focus in this book, and deservedly so. Going from analysis to design is tricky in any methodology, and "Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML, A Practical Approach" shines in this area. The authors refer to this as "robustness analysis," and this section alone is worth the price of the book.

This won't be the only book concerning the Unified Process that you will ever buy. But it is more than likely going to be one of the most useful to you.

This is not a tutorial on the UML; purchase "UML Distilled, Second Edition" by Martin Fowler and Kendall Scott if that is what you are looking for. The title may be slightly misleading in this respect. The real focus is on the "Practical Approach" part. If you are trying to sort out HOW TO DO IT, then this is a necessary addition to your library. It won't replace your books on the UML or the Unified Process, but it will help you pull it all together into a cohesive whole so you can get a grasp on how to start and how to proceed.

In addition to being very informative and clear in direction, the book is also surprisingly interesting to read. Its clarity and brevity keep it simple. You won't get bogged down reading this one. It is very well written.

Okay. I was sold on the Iconix process after a series of 5 articles in Software Development magazine. I went out and bought the book anyway. Fortunately, after reading the book, you won't need to buy the methodology.

I design community based web portal applications. Our applications are medium-sized, but complex. So RUP is too big, and XP is too small. The Iconix process presented here is just right for most of our applications.

UML is a large language. About 20% of it is very useful. The trick is knowing what 20%, and how the artifacts should follow each other. The book presents a lightweight process which is reasonably easy to use.

If you work in web development, read Conallen's "Building web applications with UML" also. The two books complement each other well. (See my review)

This book is short, which is a first reason to give it 4 stars, and the authors really gives us a good ration information / volume. I found the approach especially adapted to 6 month or less project with small team, because the author do not drown readers under a lot of activities and artifacts. We continuously have a "you are here" picture of the overall methodology, and we are continuously directed to code production. The best part of the book is probably the robustess analysis, which allow to go from Use Cases to an Object model, its something you can buy anyway if you practice Use Cases.

Other UML books tell you about the capabilities of UML. This book tells you how to use a subset of UML to complete a software project rapidly, and for that I give it a cautious recommendation.
The fundamental philosophy, placing Use Cases at the center of the development process, is sound.
The reader should excercise caution: Some aspects of this book (robustness analysis) are out of the mainstream and others are off the charts (the appendix on uses vs. extends is one volley in a larger 'religious war').
If you're overwhelmed by UML and all its minutia, this book whittles it down--class diagrams, use cases, robustness diagrams, sequence diagrams--and presents a step by step development process.

The author's advice matches closely what has worked for me on OO projects. I came to similar conclusions partly by trial and error: this book will save you a lot of trouble by identifying a core set of modeling tasks to take you from use cases to code (and beyond). Rosenberg's presentation is in many ways a distillation of Jacobson's OOSE book, but with some twists. His contributions include a persuasive argument to perform domain modeling of objects in advance of use case development, which turned out to be excellent advice.

This book is an excellent guide for developers new to OO with enough solid insights to be useful to those with more experience as well. Let me put it this way: I've adopted it as the "unofficial" process guide for my team.

Although I would highly recommend reading more detailed theoretical books for anyone who wants to get into OO in depth, this is by far the best high level book on OO development on the market. And if you're not using use cases, this book will show you why you should.

Great book! A case-oriented followup to the original book (buy it first if you haven't already). This and the original are the best, no-nonsense, down-to-earth simplification of OOAD and UML that I've seen! Mandatory issue for all new developers where I work now. If only I had this book (and the original) several years ago when I started off with UML!

As I was learning OOAD concept and techniques, and the UML, the one thing I found lacking in most materials was application. There are a lot of great books on what OO is, with guidelines on good design, and great examples of diagrams you can create. None of them that I've read, with the exception of this work, has provided any look at how to put the pieces together in a sane fashion. Rosenberg succeeds admirably at this goal.

Contrary to what some reviewers seem to think, this isn't a book about the UML, and I don't believe it tries to be a definitive reference on methodology, either. Rather, Rosenberg presents (with a clear disclaimer) his perspective and method for performing OOAD; I find it a valuable one, at that.

If you're just getting started with OO and/or the UML, and want a good overview of how the pieces fit together, read this. I'd recommend it to all other comers, as well, unless you think reviewing an additional perspective (from a successful, well-regarded individual) isn't valuable.

This is an excellent beginners guide to OOAD for small to medium sized projects. I've recently delved into learning OOAD and getting my company out of the dark ages. This book has been a great, concise, interesting start. There are a couple of things I disagree with, but they are small. For instance, I disagree with making up "precedes" and "invokes" instead of using <<include>> and <<extend>>. The author's usage of "Robustness Diagrams" is excellent. They are difficult to find in other texts, but are very helpfull. Although, I do disagree with his suggestion to assign controller functionality to boundary objects in later models. The author's process may not have the detail that the Rational Unified Process has, but it is far better for small projects.

This is the eighth software engineering title that uses the UML (Unified Modeling Language) that I have read in the last five months as I work to establish a software engineering guide and reference framework for a small team at my technology company. This book really sets forth the ICONIX methodology, the author's streamlined approach to modeling using mostly, but not only, UML.

Because of the author's quarrelsome nature and unusual departures from common progressions in the model views, I found this book less useful than the others. The author repeatedly explains (with a careful record of the dates) how much of his integration of the competing OO modeling methods preceded the work of the UML founders (Booch, Jacobson, and Rumbaugh) and frequently raises the small quarrels in the UML world for no purpose except to give a quick and unsupported opinion. Not surprisingly, ten of the twenty-five citations in the bibliography are the author's prior papers.

Although the title claims the method is "use case driven," techniques and guidelines for use cases are poorly done; and the author suggests that the requirements stage should begin with domain modeling and "robustness diagrams" before text for use cases is written. The author also places heavy emphasis on screen mockups during the requirements stage.

The contents would make a good lecture or two; but it is an annoying departure from the efforts of many to extend and enrich UML. Since the book is only 165 pages, it won't hurt for long, and there are thoughts here and there worth reading. Perhaps it's tongue-in-cheek, a test to see if we can spot obvious logical problems with the method.

This book is as pertinent for the Web developer as it is for straight-up software geeks. As a professional working in information architecture, I strongly recommend this book. Rosenberg/Scott provide an excellent "cookbook" for creating and refining use cases. Methodology and documentation such as this, when judiciously applied, can mean the difference between success and disaster -- a lesson the Web industry needs to learn.

It *could* use a cover redesign. I volunteer ;)

Simple, clear diagrams illustrate information relationships comprehensible even to the beginner. A within-arm's -reach resource.