Customer Reviews

Mainstream Objects: An Analysis and Design Approach for Business (Yourdon Press Computing Series)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the actual book from which I learned some analysis and design. I read it once before the first project I managed and I was really bored. I managed the project and the result was not much that I'm proud of. I read it again and found that all the concepts in there were exactly what kept me from doing a good design. The next project went great - much because of this book.

This is a terrific intro to object oriented system analysis, design and construction. It provides a great overview of when to use various techniques and how to apply to them to a systems project. I highly recommend it if you are new to the topic or even if you need a refresher to OO concepts. It works well as a project manager's guide as well as for very technical folks. Couple this with McConnell's "Rapid Development" and you have some fine software development books.

In rereading this book after many years, I am still impressed with the quality of the material. It starts with an overview of the object-oriented paradigm and how valuable an approach it is to software development. The second section is an overview of modeling techniques, how object structures are modeled, sequential actions described, how objects interact, and the lifecycle of an object and how systems are modeled. Part three deals with the object-oriented development process, from initiative to the testing of the final product. The last section deals with learning how to think in an object-oriented manner.
While the material is good and the notation used to represent the concepts will be familiar, it all came before UML and therefore is outdated. Even small differences in notation can render diagrams difficult or impossible to understand, and that is the case here. Without the advantages of modern UML notation, this book could confuse you more than it could help you. However, if UML notation were used, it would be a very useful and valuable book.

I gave 4 stars to this book because of its quality.
Nevertheless I think it is obsolete because it was written before "UML" was defined.
I think they should write a new edition that is "UML compliant"

In this book the knowledge of a large group of experts is combined, to help the novice to understand what objects are and how to perform the different steps to reach the final desired application. Unfortunately the order is a bit strange, but in the different chapters requirements, checks and tips are provided how to handle the different activities. Besides this book also explains methodologies not developed by Yourdon or by Software AG (the company that sponsored the writing of this book) and clearly explains the benefits and disadvantages in an objective way.

I'm not sure who this book is aimed at. People who have no OO experience will struggle to come to terms with the concepts; people with a lot of OO experience will find the whole thing too simplistic. Probably it will work best for people who have some limited experience of one or maybe two OO projects and who are looking for input for their next project.

This book has it all. It has a simple yet complete approach to OO, covering and commenting the most popular methods. The authors did a great job, managing to fit such complex topics in a small book.