I bought this book as I wanted to familiarize myself with Rose. To be able to get the most out of this book, you need to be familiar with standard practices in business modeling and UML. Though the book teaches you a few things about business modeling, it is a special case of a general instance.

If you are familiar with UML, OOP concepts and business modeling AND you want to use Rose to achieve a particular objective, you can use this book. A complete lack of exercises makes this book a reference at best. This book is mostly about pointing-and-clicking and is a how-to reference for Rose.

Each chapter in the book is a how-to about something or the other; how to add classes or class diagrams, how to add use cases and actors etc. So, to be able to put all of this to good use, you need to know that you need to add use cases and also where you need to add them.

One reason this book is around is perhaps that there is very little competition! I think there are only one or two other books out there!

On the whole, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who is looking to learn UML or wants to get a good intro to Rose.

I bought this book as I wanted to familiarize myself with Rose. To be able to get the most out of this book, you need to be familiar with standard practices in business modeling and UML. Though the book teaches you a few things about business modeling, it is a special case of a general instance.
If you are familiar with UML, OOP concepts and business modeling AND you want to use Rose to achieve a particular objective, you can use this book. A complete lack of exercises makes this book a reference at best. This book is mostly about pointing-and-clicking and is a how-to reference for Rose.
Each chapter in the book is a how-to about something or the other; how to add classes or class diagrams, how to add use cases and actors etc. So, to be able to put all of this to good use, you need to know that you need to add use cases and also where you need to add them.
One reason this book is around is perhaps that there is very little competition! I think there are only one or two other books out there!
On the whole, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who is looking to learn UML or wants to get a good intro to Rose.

I bought this book as I wanted to familiarize myself with Rose. To be able to get the most out of this book, you need to be familiar with standard practices in business modeling and UML. Though the book teaches you a few things about business modeling, it is a special case of a general instance.
If you are familiar with UML, OOP concepts and business modeling AND you want to use Rose to achieve a particular objective, you can use this book. A complete lack of exercises makes this book a reference at best. This book is mostly about pointing-and-clicking and is a how-to reference for Rose.
Each chapter in the book is a how-to about something or the other; how to add classes or class diagrams, how to add use cases and actors etc. So, to be able to put all of this to good use, you need to know that you need to add use cases and also where you need to add them.
One reason this book is around is perhaps that there is very little competition! I think there are only one or two other books out there!
On the whole, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who is looking to learn UML or wants to get a good intro to Rose.

Wow, where do I start.
As a Sr. Software Engineer who routinely mentors others in OOAD using Rational Rose I was *extremely* disappointed with this book. I have come to the conclusion that the only reason this book sells is because there are only 2 or 3 books on the market that cover this subject (UML with Rational Rose). In fact, this book has inspired me to write one of my own on the subject as I am confident any other book would be orders of magnitude better than this one.
Much of the book is filled with fluff such as screenshots of how a GUI menu works and instructions detailing how to use a pop-up menu; no doubt, justifying the ... price tag on this paperback puppy. It seems the authors are writing for an audience which has not used a word processor or any other GUI-based application.
Of all of the technical books dealing with a variety of subjects over the years, this is the absolute worst - bar none.

Readers can be certain, any non-trivial UML or Rose questions they have will *not* be answered in this book.
Perhaps, if you are an absolute absolute newbie to UML and Rose, and GUI based tools (complete with menus and all), then there may be some benefit from this ... book. You certainly will learn how to select items from a menu bar, as this lesson is repeated again and again.

...P>I have, however, found a good use for the included cd.
I use it as a frisbee for my cat.

Wow, where do I start.
As a Sr. Software Engineer who routinely mentors others in OOAD using Rational Rose I was *extremely* disappointed with this book. I have come to the conclusion that the only reason this book sells is because there are only 2 or 3 books on the market that cover this subject (UML with Rational Rose). In fact, this book has inspired me to write one of my own on the subject as I am confident any other book would be orders of magnitude better than this one.
Much of the book is filled with fluff such as screenshots of how a GUI menu works and instructions detailing how to use a pop-up menu; no doubt, justifying the ... price tag on this paperback puppy. It seems the authors are writing for an audience which has not used a word processor or any other GUI-based application.
Of all of the technical books dealing with a variety of subjects over the years, this is the absolute worst - bar none.

Readers can be certain, any non-trivial UML or Rose questions they have will *not* be answered in this book.
Perhaps, if you are an absolute absolute newbie to UML and Rose, and GUI based tools (complete with menus and all), then there may be some benefit from this ... book. You certainly will learn how to select items from a menu bar, as this lesson is repeated again and again.

...P>I have, however, found a good use for the included cd.
I use it as a frisbee for my cat.

The title of this book could more appropriately be "Mastering Rational Rose using UML" and not the other way around.

This is one of the better books on Rational Rose and gives a quick overview of the different Rose features. It does not cover all of UML but it can be sufficient depending on your needs.

UML is very broad - it will be incredibly difficult to sum it all in one book. The authors have done admiringly well. It will be up to readers to research further into specific areas of their interest after obtaining the overview here.

I would recommend this book to readers who would like a gentle introduction to UML using one of the most powerful tools around, Rational Rose.

For audiences that are already very familiar with UML, this book is recommended if you would like to get acquainted with Rational Rose faster.

I hope you find this review helpful.

This book gives you all the knowledge you need to model using Rational Rose. In doing this, it covers large areas of modeling using UML covering most of its basics and concepts.

The book, however, focuses more on the use of Rose than it does on UML itself. If you are already familiar with the concepts of UML, then this book is all what you need to know how to make use of Rose in your UML modeling. If you're new to UML, then you'll get its basic concepts and some practical advice, but nothing more than that.

The language is clear and the content is presented in a very detailed easy-to-grasp way. However, many pages are wasted in step by step walkthroughs for accessing functions and features (and their alternative paths), you'll find many of these steps repeated again and again throughout the book, which is something I didn't like that much (after all, common sense is assumed to be a prerequisite that must be satisfied before attempting software modeling). And that's why this book is relatively long in size but takes very little time to finish.

Overall, this is a great book for new modelers and Rose users, it's much better than the official Rose manuals. I'm glad I've got this one in my library.

-Mokhtar M. Khorshid

I bought rose from somebody without user manuals. This thing fits what I need 100%. I don't need or want a UML walkthrough, I want a freakin user manual. This is the next best thing since those are so hard to get

I bought rose from somebody without user manuals. This thing fits what I need 100%. I don't need or want a UML walkthrough, I want a freakin user manual. This is the next best thing since those are so hard to get

I purchase this book to learn how to use Roational Rose 2002, and to get a better understanding of UML.

After reading this book, I have achieved the goal.

Few suggestions to the authors:

1) At the end of the book, if there were a COMPLETE sample, illusating the whole process, from Business Use Case Diagrams, to Deployement diagrams, then this book would be more complete and useful.

2) The book should come with a trail version of Rational Rose 2002. Otherwise, how are the readers going to practice using the tool?

Thanks,
Sincerely,

David Zuo.

I got OO Project Management , Project Management with UML, Applying UML and Patterns, UML Reference By Grady/Booch, Software Requirements by Microsoft Press etc. I have not touched a single one of them (with the exception of skimming over the last one which helped). This book saved my life and replaced all of them (I may use the others to make my library look more imposing). I used to just stare at Rose 2000 wishing I could understand or use it. Then I got this book. Before you start reading this book, ensure you have Rose 2000 running in front of you. This is what a Technical book should be. All through college I had to put up with books that implied things, skipped steps and assumed that some theorem or the other was "internalized". I had copious notes next to every proof, it was like deciphering every sentence! This book is nothing like that. It is like having an instructor over your shoulder who will guide you through the steps even if you are tired and sleepy (you will learn). .. If you want a more abstract book there are thousands of those out there. After reading those you can say "I know the MEANING of rational rose, I know the history of UML and the motivations behind it and how it works and all the syntax of the language" but you will not have USED the language or the application. If you want a practical book, get this one.

The science of computing and mathematics - the science of system architecture is best served when we can actually produce results (not "knowing" UML but using it)...

As a beginning user of Rose and the UML I found this book to be perfect! The examples displayed in the book have given me a thorough grasp of Rose and the UML. I was able to use the Table of Contents and go right to the answers that I was looking for. I highly recommend this book for everyone who wants a practical users guide.

1000 pages of printed help files don't allow to call this bulk of paper as a book. It is not a hard job every 5 lines to repeat : "Push this button or open that menu", it is more harder to write real book that allows to understand core of Rational Rose product.

Seldom do I take pen in hand to review a technical book, but herewith the exception that proves the rule. The compelling reason to break the rule is that there is, within this treatise, a glimmer of the true reality one finds out there in the world of project plans, organizational politics, object oriented gurus and missed deadlines.

How such a simple project could possibly be extended into the magnificent total of 950+ pages is more an example of why projects fail that the description of a methodology that would help them to succeed.

The authors seem like pleasant people, the kind that make sure that the pussy cats have a fresh bowl of cream before they go to work in the morning. On the other hand, as authors, given the choice between the project for which this code was written and the project this code was written for...sadly...would opt for the latter. I am also slightly suspect of their qualifications given the blizzard of witless, pointless, recurring detail they have spewn onto the printed page. It's almost like they concocted a rich stereotype for the legal market that developed a life of it's own within their word processor. (I'm sure the Sierra Club has them on their list of tree haters).

You see, I think that 'object oriented' might have something to do with it.

I can't count the number of nights I've spent trying to code off of documents consisting of little stick figures that seemed to be making brownies, the collaboration diagram that implied sleeping with the enemy, and sequence charts that seemed to describe the Macarena. Interestingly, the object-oriented gurus weren't around at this hour. They had played patti-cake with the users from 9 'til 5 and were safely home in their snug little beds. How bad was it? On one major project, no guff, we were told "just code something......we'll clean it up later".

So, in conclusion, I think what you have here is just what I've come the expect from these guys: Reams of blinding yet curiously pointless, useless yet remarkably similar, pointless yet expressed with religious fervor BULLSHIT which you get to figure out how to make work while they are safe and sound in their snug little beds.

Sleep well darlings.

I would have to agree that this book does not cover UML AT ALL! If you have no idea what UML is, then this book MIGHT present something new (but not necessarily usefull) to you. If you have never used Rose before then a quick scan through this book will familiarize you with the environment through the book's multiple screen shots.

However, the book should be retitled "Overly heavy user's manual for Rational Rose." There is no insight into UML or using Rose that is not covered more precisely in the user's manual that accompanies Rose. If you are considering using Rose and have no idea what its capabilities are prior to purchase, this book still will not be of use (try the web - it's free). The step-by-step instructions are already outdated if you use Rose 2000 and they take up over 400 pages if you add them together (much of the space is used repeating the same procedure). Add to that the 400-500 pages of screen shots and you are left with about 50 pages of actual content.

Overall, this book is horribly composed and is nothing more than a walk-through of Rose 98/98i. END

There are absolutely nothing about UML. Do not buy this book. There is only 10 pages about UML.

Its many screen shots and detailed steps definitely help you maximize Rational Rose, but as a UML guide it falls short. From the title I was expecting to get a walkthrough of UML using Rose as the vehicle, but it is really the reverse: a walkthrough of Rose using UML as the vehicle. I have very few questions left about Rose but I'm buying another book on UML :-(.

I downloaded Rose 2000 and found the examples very useful. However, I had no idea how to start with a blank page and use Rose to develope a new product. With this book, I was able to. I learned about Use Case diagrams and how to use them effectively. It noted some pitfalls to watch out for that I'd already fallen into. One guys writes above that its just full of screen shots. Well they proved very helpful: Rose has a habit of not letting you do something unless exactly the right thing is selected. The screen shots helped me figure it out. Without them I'd just assumed that button/menu didnt work with that object. I have no formal OOP training, but many years of experience. I know why Rose is useful. This book is a step-by-step familiarization with Rose. Great.

This book replaces the other 4 that I had on my shelf

This book is complete and comprehensive with figures for all the features of rational rose.

I found this to be a very helpful text in the learning of Rose. The graphics are essential for understanding the theory of UML as well as Rose, because both are very visually oriented. Decidedly a useful tool.

Maybe its name should be "Complete screen shots of Rational Rose", it really is.

There are absolutely no contents. You cannot use it to learn UML or OOA/D.

If you don't have Rational Rose software but want to learn how to use the tool, the book might be somewhat useful since it contains (almost) all the screens Rose has. That's the only usage of this book I can think of.