Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself UML in 24 Hours (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Our company is interested in UML, and several people had bought two books by the guys known as The Three Amigos - Booch, Jaconsen, and Rumbaugh (the User Guide and the Software Development Process). I started reading and quickly found that these books moved too far, too fast - the same experience that the others had.

I took a look at the UML books in my local computer bookstore and decided to take a chance with this one. I'm glad I did. If you don't have a heavy Computer Science background, you'll find this to be an excellent introduction to UML.

Schmuller provides a general introduction, followed by examples of all the main types of diagrams. He follows this up with a case study of automating a restaurant. In every instance the author constantly provides examples from the real world, so it's almost impossible to fail to understand.

Schmuller's writing style is great; his background in magazines shows off here, as opposed to the "scholars writing for other scholars" approach of many of the other UML books. The "Twenty-four Hours" format puts the information into bite-size pieces, so you're never overwhelmed with new facts.

People with a heavy computer science background will probably find this book doesn't go into enough detail, but the rest of us will be very happy. I'd suggest that if you had a small amount of programming experience you'd be ideal for this book, but anyone who's had some experience of computers can get a lot out of it.

After I read this book I came back to the Three Amigos books and suddenly found I could understand them. In fact, I could dip into the books at pretty much any point and follow what was happening.

With my new-found knowledge I offered to teach an intoductory course on UML for the people who were struggling with the Three Amigos books, and as I created my outline I realized how well thought-out Schmuller's book is. I didn't have to add much to what he'd written, and I began to realize that his examples must have been carefully chosen to make things very clear.

In short - if UML seems like a hard slog to you, or you just think you need a passing knowledge, get this book. If you find that you want to go further, you'll now have the kind of knowledge that the Three Amigos expect from their readers.

I'm a tech writer who used to be a software engineer (10 years ago, before OO programming became popular and long before UML even existed). I just started a job where I'll be using UML content as source material, so I was looking for introductory information (I'm not going to be programming) that was very basic and easy for a less-tech (though not completely un-tech) person to understand. I started with the Three Amigos' "The UML User Guide" and Alhir's "UML in a Nutshell," and got nowhere (I mean *nowhere*) with them. Lacking much of the needed background, I needed lots of understandable examples of even the most basic concepts, and neither had many in their early chapters. (Also, like others who have posted comments on the "Nutshell" book, I found Alhir's writing horrible and very distracting, especially with the ultra-frequent bulleted lists and parenthetical remarks. I became so aware of the bad writing that I often forgot what he was talking about and had to re-read.) Both books assumed that the reader had a substantial background in OO programming and software project management, which I don't have (though admittedly the programmers who would read these books would have this background).

Following recommendations I found here, I checked out this Schmuller book, and it gave me exactly what I needed: simple, basic introductory stuff very fitting for a non-expert who wanted to read, but not write, UML. I'm sure I'm not in the main audience this book was meant for, but in case there are a few others out there who need to just dip their toes in the water of UML and OO programming, this is the book to get.

I have been a programmer for seven years, but I only recently starting working on projects large enough to warrant detailed design. Although I know quite a lot about object-oriented programming, I didn't know anything about drawing pictures to represent a software system. I read this book in just over six hours--the chapters really only take about 15 minutes to read--and found it to be exactly what I was looking for. It is clear, has excellent examples, and was written at exactly the right level for me.

If you want to learn the Unified Modeling Language, this is probably the best book you can get. The book is well organized. In the first section, you learn the various diagrams which are used. Each lesson takes about an hour, the short exercises at the end of each chapter help reinforce your knowledge. The second section has a case study, I found that each lesson took more than an hour. Overall, I'm quite happy with the book, and I think you will be too if you want to learn UML.

Thanks for taking the time to review my book. I've been working with UML professionally for more than 3 years, and my goal was to help beginners learn UML as quickly and painlessly as possible. I spent more than 3 months writing it and made every effort to make it accessible for beginners. Given the almost universally positive responses I've gotten from readers, I'm a little surprised you found so many problems with the book.

That said, if I can improve the book, I'd very much like to do so. If you'd like to email your specific feedback to me at jschmuller@yahoo.com I'll be sure to address any errors as quickly as possible. Also, if you could let me know who you may have spoken to at my publisher, I'd appreciate that as well. No one there has contacted either me or my agent about any problems with the book, so I'm not sure why anyone there would characterize me as being unhelpful.

I truly care about what readers get out of my books and worked very hard to produce the absolute best book I could. Of course, I expect it to get even better in future editions and will look forward to receiving your feedback.

This book is only the second UML book I have read. As a student trying to get a hang of this new way of modeling I found the 24 hours (almost) it took to read this book and play with the exercises a good investment of my time. The textbook used in my course takes much longer to read and doesn't deliver any more.

Part I and 200 pages take the reader step by step through an introduction to object-oriented software design concepts and then through each of the UML diagram types. Part II and 110 pages provide a case study in chronological sequence with the UIML diagrams shown for each step. The case study ends with a brief intro to design patterns, a hot interview topic for developers. Part III and 68 pages provide an interesting chapter on UML in embedded systems and a look at where the UML is heading as far as the GUI and expert systems.

The book is clearly written by a PhD who is a former PC technical journal editor. The writer is now an analyst and UML practitioner, and his working experience in the field makes the book a very practical guide. The UML diagrams are clear and simple.

UML is pretty much for computer professionals, so this book is most useful for professionals who need to quickly get up to date with the UML, the worldwide language for modeling software systems. For those planning to use UML on a project for the first time, the book's organization makes it a useful reference for the vocabulary and notation of the UML.

Since the UML is not yet a language that can be used to generate code with commonly available tools, the book has plenty of diagrams and Q&A at the end of each chapter but not the sample code that many Teach Yourself readers are accustomed to finding. So this one can be read in a comfortable chair with your computer turned off.

Read this first and then if necessary dig into the more technical Addison Wesley Object Technology Series where each title is blessed by the three creators of the UML - Booch, Jacobson, and Rumbaugh.

Any fear about this still new thing will be gone. You will be able to use the UML when you complete this book!

Joseph Schmuller has crafted an excellent book with which to start learning UML. His explanations are generally clear and succinct, his examples and case studies engaging and comprehensible. Not only can you get the hang of UML syntax and methods from this book, he walks you through a useful development methodology which he calls GRAPPLE - Guidelines for Rapid Application Engineering. I am enthusiastic about sharing this book with everyone at work and am eager to consolidate my learning on a real project with UML. I don't think I learned everything I need from this book and have ordered UML Distilled, Second Edition as a follow up. The reason I did not give this book five stars is because I thought the last two chapters (on embedded systems, GUI, expert systems AND UML) were more filler than an education in UML. The book needed to be 24 chapters but I can't help but believe that something more on topic could have been covered. But don't get me wrong, these chapters were interesting, they just didn't teach as much UML as other chapters.

This is one book that you'll definitely must have if you want to get up-to-date quick with UML! This is an excellent compilation using clear and concise diagrams rather than dry & wordy texts to illustrate UML concepts. I applaud the author for his highly-effective approach! The restaurant case study is also very enlightening in its use of dialogue sessions to get the techniques across...great clarity and not without a good sense of humour too!

This text is sharp and to the point. As an initial introduction to UML it is clear, and makes the subject inviting, unlike many other texts which drill down too far, too quickly, and leave the poor student confused and disorientated. This is the place to start...