Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML

Great book! A case-oriented followup to the original book (buy it first if you haven't already). This and the original are the best, no-nonsense, down-to-earth simplification of OOAD and UML that I've seen! Mandatory issue for all new developers where I work now. If only I had this book (and the original) several years ago when I started off with UML!

Okay. I was sold on the Iconix process after a series of 5 articles in Software Development magazine. I went out and bought the book anyway. Fortunately, after reading the book, you won't need to buy the methodology. I design community based web portal applications. Our applications are medium-sized, but complex. So RUP is too big, and XP is too small. The Iconix process presented here is just right for most of our applications.UML is a large language. About 20% of it is very useful. The trick is knowing what 20%, and how the artifacts should follow each other. The book presents a lightweight process which is reasonably easy to use.If you work in web development, read Conallen's "Building web applications with UML" also. The two books complement each other well. (See my review)

This is an excellent beginners guide to OOAD for small to medium sized projects. I've recently delved into learning OOAD and getting my company out of the dark ages. This book has been a great, concise, interesting start. There are a couple of things I disagree with, but they are small. For instance, I disagree with making up "precedes" and "invokes" instead of using > and <<extend>>. The author's usage of "Robustness Diagrams" is excellent. They are difficult to find in other texts, but are very helpfull. Although, I do disagree with his suggestion to assign controller functionality to boundary objects in later models. The author's process may not have the detail that the Rational Unified Process has, but it is far better for small projects.

"Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML, A Practical Approach" is perhaps the best book on the market for a down-to-earth, hands-on introduction to the Unified Process. As the title suggests, it leans heavily on the methodology of Ivar Jacobson, one of the three amigos. If you are trying to figure out what to do or where to start, this will point you in the right direction. Three things in particular I liked about the book: 1. "The Approach in a Nutshell" as well as constant reference back to it. 2. The lists of ten. 3. The chapter on "robustness analysis" showing the transition from analysis to design (always a difficult transition in any methodology). This is the best part of the book in my opinion. It was real "hands-on". "The Approach in a Nutshell" gives a great overview of the process including milestones, and provides a framework for everything to fit into. As the reader progresses through the book, each chapter summarizes that part of "the approach in a nutshell" that the chapter fits into. If this was the only feature in the book, it would be worth the price. If you have ever read another series with "lists of ten", these are better. The lists of ten (there are over half-a-dozen) are worth taping up on the walls. They reflect the experience of someone who has been there and done that. The lists of ten alone are worth the price of the book. The transition from analysis to design has rather heavy focus in this book, and deservedly so. Going from analysis to design is tricky in any methodology, and "Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML, A Practical Approach" shines in this area. The authors refer to this as "robustness analysis," and this section alone is worth the price of the book. This won't be the only book concerning the Unified Process that you will ever buy. But it is more than likely going to be one of the most useful to you.This is not a tutorial on the UML; purchase "UML Distilled, Second Edition" by Martin Fowler and Kendall Scott if that is what you are looking for. The title may be slightly misleading in this respect. The real focus is on the "Practical Approach" part. If you are trying to sort out HOW TO DO IT, then this is a necessary addition to your library. It won't replace your books on the UML or the Unified Process, but it will help you pull it all together into a cohesive whole so you can get a grasp on how to start and how to proceed. In addition to being very informative and clear in direction, the book is also surprisingly interesting to read. Its clarity and brevity keep it simple. You won't get bogged down reading this one. It is very well written.

The author's advice matches closely what has worked for me on OO projects. I came to similar conclusions partly by trial and error: this book will save you a lot of trouble by identifying a core set of modeling tasks to take you from use cases to code (and beyond). Rosenberg's presentation is in many ways a distillation of Jacobson's OOSE book, but with some twists. His contributions include a persuasive argument to perform domain modeling of objects in advance of use case development, which turned out to be excellent advice.This book is an excellent guide for developers new to OO with enough solid insights to be useful to those with more experience as well. Let me put it this way: I've adopted it as the "unofficial" process guide for my team.Although I would highly recommend reading more detailed theoretical books for anyone who wants to get into OO in depth, this is by far the best high level book on OO development on the market. And if you're not using use cases, this book will show you why you should.