Customer Reviews

Use Cases Combined with Booch/OMT/UML: Process and Products with CDROM

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

 

 

Definitely not for novice developers, this book presents a respectable starting point for OOAD practices. Though some text/techniques did look dated; the approach, deliverables, phases were well covered and can definitely be used for mid-sized OO projects. The phases are well-explained alongwith important elements like pragmatic issues, entry-exit criteria.

For those attempting to bring more structure to their development process, this book's utility can be enhanced with knowledge of design patterns, and previous OOAD experience. One can certainly modify / improve the various deliverables covered in the book to their own needs.

I do wish for a better title and singular focus on UML, now that it is a standard. The code listings can surely be reduced and made more up-to-date. Some basic Java dev guidelines (like package names in lowercase) have been ignored.

Having worked with Putnam Texel several years ago, I was excited to finally see her work published. Under her direction, the project we worked on produced some of the best analysis materials I have seen to date. I was very eager to see how she had evolved her methodology to include such modern software engineering techniques as use-cases and the UML.

As the title dictates, "Use Cases combined with ...", one would expect some steller use-case technologies presented. Unfortunately, the use-case analysis presented here are both immature and offstream. No where in the book are use-case models and their notation per the UML standard presented. The use-case scenario examples are weak and fail to cleanly flow to software design. The concept presented that use cases map to class methods emphasized the authors fail to understand "true" use-case technologies.

The rest of the book is full of home-brewed project duties and diagramming (CCDs, CCCDs, STDs, PID! s, PADs, & CIDs) which, if followed to the receipt, could quadruple your project's schedule. There fails to be an effort to show how the process can be streamlined.

The authors do present a complete flowing process which other methodolgist often fail to do. There are some good ideas and some specifics that can help scientists fill in the holes of their own methodology. I would suggest a process of this type for large scale developments. I would also suggest, however, you look elsewhere for use-case analysis techniques.

The title of this book appears to be misleading. It really discusses an approach or "SLDC" process for OO. This should be apparent to anyone that looks at the cover because the "side bar" states what it covers. The Preface also states that it presents a framework for OO methodologies.

For organizations new to OO, this book provides an excelent "how to". You can even take the inside cover and put in a project tool like MS project!

As the authors state, it is like a cook book and after you try it, you can modify the recipe to suite your environment.

The structure of the book is excellent. The information was very well presented.

I highly recommend this book.

This book is to difficult for OO-novices and too easy for advanced OO-practicioners. It has 450 pages approx. but most of it are just programming listings which are of no use to anybody

I worked for a company where Putnam Texel was an OO process consultant just prior ro her writing this book. What a horror. We were getting all focused on producing these idiotic design artifacts but never actually were gaining any real understanding of the system we were trying to design. She was all process but never really conveyed the real methods of thinking that are essential to OO analysis and design. Don't even waste you time with this book.

I agree with Bruce Arbuckle that this is an excellent book, and also that the title is somewhat misleading. The feature that drain@yahoo.com from Los Angeles, California complained about ("The rest of the book is full of home-brewed project duties and diagramming (CCDs, CCCDs, STDs, PID! s, PADs, & CIDs") I found to be an asset! Whether you are a veteran OO developer or manager, or a novice at OOA/OOD there is plenty here to borrow and put to use in developing your own style and methodology. Rarely is a complex subject like this covered so thoroughly and with such attention to detail.

Textel and Williams provide a cookbook which can be followed to the letter, or which you can modify to satisfy your own OO sensibilities. I particularly found the continual contrasting and comparing of Booch, OMT, and UML to be interesting and edifying.

The Project Management spreadsheet was an unexpected bonus. By following the phases described in this book step by step, producing the recommended deliverables, and using the review items for each phase, anyone with half a brain could successfully manage an OO project -- even someone in management! :-)

The "hcb@ibm.net" review/posting was intended to be a joke from one of the members of our project. There is NO "hcb@ibm.net" in Warsaw, Poland (it's a fictitious e-mail address). The guy writing the "review" has never been east of New York City - let alone Eastern Europe! So if you wish to provide credible reviews to your customers - REMOVE IT!!!

P.S. As a matter of fact, most of the people in our project wish they had never seen this book!!!

This book provides an excellent cook book process for large scale software development projects.

If you are experienced in OO methods, but have not applied it in a formal process, you must read this book. The authors clearly explain how to get from the user's initial wishes to final delivery. While many books outline the steps to take, the authors have done an excellent job of telling you how to do it, what to look for, what to avoid, and most importantly, what you'll have at the end of each phase and how to move to the next. Like the book's title says, you can use UML, Booch, or OMT as your method. The case study developed throughout the book makes use of all three as well as C++, Java, and Ada. If you happen to use some other methodology and/or programming language, the process is flexible enough to accommodate it- though the one method upon which the whole process depends are Use Cases. However, the book isn't perfect. For example, patterns are buried deep inside the process. I would have liked the authors to give patterns a more prominent role, though if you're familiar with patterns and OOA/D, you should be able to integrate it with this process. For example, an existing pattern could be researched and treated as an existing document. Another downside was its treatment of iterations. While there was great fanfare at the beginning of the book with regards to iterative development, the authors could have concentrated on showing how an iterative phase fits within the entire plan. Perhaps it was there all along and I just failed to let it sink in. But other concepts were loud and clear through out the book. As a project manager, I appreciate the advantages of an iterative approach to development. Laying out such a task in a project plan requires a really good understanding not of how it works but how it fits. What would I like to see in a second edition? Not much, more prominent treatment of patterns, a more lucid explanation of how iterations work, perhaps generate some software metrics, all topics any decent development manager should be able to integrate. I recommend this book, even if you already have or use a process. The author's approach to requirements engineering alone is worth the price of the book.

Well I guess a title like this helps sales but it's a pity there is so little content to support it.

Anyone looking for some great use-case technologies will be sorely disappointed. And the process and project management content is stifling, cumbersombe and dated. There are many far more exciting, modern and lightweight alternatives than this mess.