Customer Reviews

Visual Modeling with Rational Rose 2000 and UML (2nd Edition) (Addison Wesley Object Technology Series)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've been working on word templates for my project based on the Rational Unified Process (RUP) web pages for my project. We will use these templates to create concept models, design models, code reviews, and inspections.

While the RUP web page provides a great overview of a development process in the large, it lacks much of the details needed when the rubber meets the road. Exact templates for design documents and detailed step-by-step instructions are not provided. Such detail is not the purpose of the RUP pages. This is the primary reason that I am melding RUP and other standards to produce the templates listed above.

I have found that "Visual Modeling with Rational Rose 2000 and UML" by Terry Quatrani is an excellent guide for moving from the inception phase through the elaboration phase and into the implementation phase. The book is a step by step description of the details involved in using Rose 2000 (or 98i) to create use-cases, tie them into design, and move to implementation.

I highly recommend using the Quantrani book as the guide to fill in the details not present in the RUP pages. This edition, while somewhat focused on a single example, is significantly better than the previous edition.

I am glad that I had this book when I first started to use Rose. It is well structured and organized. It tells you what you need to do exactly, how to do it step by step. More important, it tells you nothing more. I think this is very important because I often find books that fill with too much information that are not necessary useful to first time users. I also find it is a better manual than the tutorial comes with Rose for a beginner to Rose. Once you know more about Rose, the Rose tutorial/manual will be a better choice.

This book, just like the title says, is just about visual modelling with rational rose and doesn't explain the details whether about UML or OODA. Just about Visual Modelling.
I recommend this book for peoples who are looking for tutorial in Rational Rose, this will be the right one. But I don't recommend this book anybody, who is looking for UML or OODA books, because it is not the right book for that.
For a tutorial is this book probably too expensive ...

You pay [too much] for a How-to Book. No explantions/examples about object-oriented programming (as UML defines it). The idea is good: you start with an example and refine it on the way. But consuming half a page to show me the actions for a specific task underestimates my I.Q. level. If you want a book that explains briefly the menus of Rational Rose it's a right choise. If you want a book that explains how to develop programs using UML, search elsewhere.

A very nice short introduction to the Rational Rose tool, pleasant to read, good to jump start using Rose. It helps if you already have some prior UML knowledge, because the book is more focusing on using the Rose in RUP, not UML.

If you just want to quickly learn UML, you may want to consider UML Distilled by Martin Fowler .

Lacking of introduction to foreward/reverse engineering in Java/J2EE is a small pitfall, otherwise it deserves 5 stars.

Terry's book is topshelf. She applies a practical hands-on guide to using Rose 2000 to a case study. The book is well written, informative, and an enjoyable read.

Together with the Rose tutorial comes with software, you are going to start using Rose fast. Just wish the book comes with the example model in a CD or somehow users can get from internet. That will save lots of trouble and I can look into details not mentioned in the book and do some thinking "why she modeled it this way?"....and why she has this object/class, isn't it already in...?

This book gives a worked example to using Rational Rose. It covers basics of UML, but not in detail. Overall, you should be able to appreciate the advantages of Visual modelling once you read this book. I would say this book is ideal for a person who has just learnt UML and OOAD concepts and is on the lookout for full fledged example of using those concepts. For just that, the book is over priced.

So you can distinguish a cardinal from a chicken? Can you fly?

Terry describes the basic diagrams and syntax of UML with a very simple Course Enrolment example that serves to show what things look like. Not much more here.

Rational software ships this book free when you buy Rational Rose. Even then it is overpriced. If you don't know UML, this book may lead you astray. The author tells you how to draw things with Rational Rose, but not why you might want to draw them. Without a doubt, the worst UML book I've ever encountered. I feel sorry for the author; it seems that she (?) was probably tasked by Rational to write a user's manual for Rational rose, and someone at Rational thought they could make some more money by publishing it as a separate book. Unfortunately, it's insufficiently thorough to be a worthwhile user's manual.