Customer Reviews

Object-Oriented Analysis and Design: Understanding System Development with UML 2.0

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2 star:		(1)
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Trying to cover the full gamut of object-oriented design, analysis, UML, etc. in a single book anymore is a daunting task. There's just so much out there now. Trying to make it readable is even more difficult. Go ahead and add in a textbook style format on top of that, and it's enough to normally scare me away. Surprisingly, Mike O'Docherty overcomes all these obstacles and does a good job with Object-Oriented Analysis And Design - Understanding System Development with UML 2.0.

Contents:
Part 1 - Setting the Scene: Object Concepts; Inheritance; Type Systems; Software Development Methodologies
Part 2 - Understanding the Problem: Gathering Requirements; Analyzing the Problem
Part 3 - Designing the Solution: Designing the System Architecture; Choosing Technologies; Designing the Subsystems; Reusable Design Patterns; Specifying the Interfaces of Classes; Continuous Testing
Appendix: Ripple Summary; iCoot Case Study; Summary of UML Notation Used
Bibliography; Index

Any one of these particular areas could be expanded out into a full volume (and I have a few of them on my shelf). I was a little surprised that O'Docherty was able to squeeze them all into a book that doesn't cause adverse back strain to carry around. Even better, the coverage of the subjects is adequate to get the first time student, either in school or in an organization, up to speed on the subject matter. By using a single case study throughout the entire book, he maintains a continuity in which skills and terminology learned in one chapter easily glide into the next one. I didn't feel like I was getting whiplash trying to follow a large number of unrelated examples that didn't pull together anything I had learned in previous pages. He also gives you enough knowledge on UML to be able to effectively use it on your job without becoming bogged down in the minute details that UML gurus argue over for years. Practicality seems to be the keyword here. While he does use Java to illustrate the few code examples that exist, the book largely steers clear of code and focuses on design that is language-independent. What code *does* exist can easily be followed regardless of your knowledge of Java.

Basically, this is a book I wouldn't have a hard time recommending to someone who didn't know object-oriented design and wanted to move into that area. There's not much wasted effort, and the payback for the time and effort expended should be pretty high...

I have been teaching OOA/OOD for many years and I have found that this book is one of the best for beginners from theoretical and practical views. You can get a global view of analysis and design process and go event to the development phases (java, distributed systems etc..)

The chapters organization is very good and can be followed during a semester course. Moreover, there are very good exercises to be discussed in class.

Finally, the book website offers a very good test (it could be used by students for exam preparation) and additional exercises, you can have a look. I really recommend it.

This is an excellent book on the subjects of OOAD.
The chapter are organized in a very thoughtful and correct way.
The book thoroughly covers all of the fundamental concepts of object oriented design and is also useful in giving a working acquaintance with UML.
Especially, all important Object Oriented Analysis and Design concepts appear in this book, and are presented in clear, easy-to-understand formats.
This is one of the best technical books I have read.
I really recommed it!

It's ok. Good job. Simple and reading is very easy. A lot of background information. Not comprehensive on every subject. That's the objective of the book: introduction!

You know if I pay [...] bucks for a kindle edition of a book, I think I can reasonably assume it will be legible. In this version there are rendering errors everywhere, titles in particular look like CAPTCHAS. There are absolutely no chapter markers or links. As a guide to learning it is un-usable. You'll see a reference to a figure and have to wait 5 pages to see it. Is it too much to ask for a little hyperlinking!

Perhaps the print version is worth the price tag, but I'm angry as hell about the kindle edition. #fail