The Elements of UML™ Style (Sigs Reference Library) [Paperback]

Scott W. Ambler (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sigs Reference Library | Publication Date: November 18, 2002

The Elements of UML Style is for all developers who create models using the Unified Modeling Language (UML), especially those in teams where understandability and consistency are critical. Just as Strunk & White's The Elements of Style provides rules of usage for writing using the English language, this text furnishes a set of rules for modeling in the UML. Scott Ambler describes a collection of standards and guidelines for creating effective UML diagrams that are concise and easy to understand. This book provides conventions for: Class diagrams, Use case diagrams, Sequence Diagrams, Activity diagrams, State chart diagrams, Collaboration diagrams, Deployment diagrams, and Component diagrams. The Elements of UML Style sets the rules for style that will improve programming productivity. Scott W. Ambler is the President of Ronin International, Inc. (www.ronin-intl.com). He is a popular international speaker, magazine columnist for Software Development (www.sdmagazine.com), and an award winning author of The Object Primer (2001), The Elements of Java Style (2000) More Process Patterns (1999), and Building Object Applications that Work (1998), all published by Cambridge University Press.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Just as Strunk & White's The Elements of Style provides rules of usage for writing in English, this text furnishes a set of rules for modeling in the Unified Modeling Language." IEEE Computer

Book Description

The Elements of UML Style is for all developers who create models using the Unified Modeling Language (UML), especially in teams where understandability and consistency are critical. Just as Strunk & Whites The Elements of Style provides rules of usage for writing using the English Language, this text furnishes a set of rules for modeling in the UML. The author describes a collection of standards and guidelines for creating effective UML diagrams that will be concise and easy to understand The Elements of UML Style sets the rules for style that will improve your productivity.

Product Details

• Paperback: 146 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (November 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521525470
• ISBN-13: 978-0521525473
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,937,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A long needed guide, January 28, 2003

By 

Dave Astels (Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Elements of UML™ Style (Sigs Reference Library) (Paperback)

There are two people I look to for information about UML: Martin Fowler (noteably: UML Distilled), and Scott Ambler.

With this book all the pieces are there. "UML Distilled" tells us how to use UML, "Agile Modeling" tells us how to use it in an agile way, and now "The Elements of UML Style" tells us how to use it so that the results look good and are understandable.

Physically, it's a nice book. Small and thin, it packs well, and will fit easily into the most overstuffed briefcase or backpack.

The format is good as well. Organized around the different diagrams, with extras for general guidelines and a quick overview of Agile Modeling, it covers related issues together in an easy to digest format. The guidelines themselves are short, concise, and well illustrated with examples.

I found it an easy book to read, being able to pick it up for a few minutes at a time without having to spend a lot of time to regain my context.

No matter how much you model, or what tools you use to do it, this little book will help make your diagrams better.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When "less" is "more", January 18, 2003

By 

Gary K. Evans "OO Guru" (Columbia, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Elements of UML™ Style (Sigs Reference Library) (Paperback)

This book has lots of excellent recommendations on style and presentation of UML diagrams. Ambler offers up 236 recommendations to questions such as: How often should I use stereotypes? Should we model keys into our DBMS? Should we require activation boxes on our sequence diagrams?

I have to recommend this little book to anyone beginning to use UML. More experienced object modelers will have developed their own modeling conventions, but they also will benefit from reading Ambler's articulate perspective. He is an accomplished modeler and an effective communicator.

Ambler covers style guidelines for all 9 UML 1.x diagrams. IMHO most of his suggestions are right-on, and his explanations are consise and accessible. I have been modeling OO systems for 10 years, and I don't agree with every recommendation Ambler makes, but I appreciate what he is offering in this book.

I especially like the fact that Ambler included an Appendix that lists all 236 guidelines in just a few pages. The book also has a high-quality bibliography of other modeling resources, and I was quite pleased that this short book also includes an Index for rapid access to terms.

Most development groups endorse the need for programming conventions and consistent naming standards. "The Elements of UML Style" is an extension of this philosophy to UML models, and every project will benefit from the ideas it presents.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great start on corporate modeling guidelines, January 10, 2003

By 

Art Staden (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Elements of UML™ Style (Sigs Reference Library) (Paperback)

In writing The Elements of UML Style, Scott Ambler has done the software modeling community a great service. As a consultant and trainer of numerous corporate clients, I see many teams whose individuals understand the semantics of UML, but have yet to gel as a team with common practices and style. On these teams, communication and productivity often suffer when arguments erupt over why something is modeled the way it is and how my way is better. Teams need to agree on a set of common practices and style. The Elements of UML Style is a great starting point.

The Elements of UML Style is small, concise, intuitively organized, and well explained. It proceeds section by section through the various UML diagrams, in the order they are used on a project. These sections provide many tried and true common sense guidelines and some valuable, but less obvious guidelines aimed at creating well-formed models.

Is it necessary? Yes. This is the best compendium of UML modeling guidelines I have seen published. Projects would be foolish to start from scratch.

Is it sufficient? No. It is a starting point. Projects will want to adjust and go beyond what Ambler writes here. For example, The Elements of UML Style provides general guidelines that urge adopting common naming conventions (section 2.3). A corporation or project will want to nail down specific guidelines for their use case, class, and component names. Also, Ambler focuses on the diagrams of UML, but there is more to modeling than the diagrams. UML itself avoids topics such as what constitutes a well-formed use case specification, and so does Ambler's book. One would have to turn to other books or training, such as IconMedialab's Advanced Use Case Lab course for detailed guidelines in these areas.

Will I be an object modeler just by reading this book? No. This is not an intro book to modeling. Read Craig Larman's "Applying UML and Patterns" (for example) to learn how to object model. Instead, The Elements of UML Style brings together many of the nuggets that will help to become a better, more consistent, and easily understood modeler. I will be recommending this book to my clients.