Since Im new to OOP and UML, I browsed through dozens of books on UML in an effort to understand how to design good oop objects. Only this book really got my interest reading, and I immediately purchased a copy from Amazon! Well, as of this writing, my copy has not yet arrived, but I'm actually continuously reading a copy of this book from a local bookstore while waiting for my own book. Really enjoyed reading most of the chapters and will re-read the book again to solidify my understanding! Highly recommended!

This book's title delivers on the promise. If you've never done UML or even heard of the Rational Unified Process (RUP), you're in good hands. The examples are very easy to follow, although there are no "tools" on the market that make it this easy, there's always a whiteboard that you can use.

Basically it delivers beginners the basics to begin more advance study topics if one so chooses.

This book's title delivers on the promise. If you've never done UML or even heard of the Rational Unified Process (RUP), you're in good hands. The examples are very easy to follow, although there are no "tools" on the market that make it this easy, there's always a whiteboard that you can use.

Basically it delivers beginners the basics to begin more advance study topics if one so chooses.

I would like to have a higher opinion of this book. I had been looking for a book with exactly this title. The author makes a solid effort to keep the tone light, and the examples used should be familiar to the widest possible audience. The book does have good points.

However, I disagree with the (many) reviewers who think that beginners are going to find this a clear path to understanding UML. I am making progress, but the pace is painful. There are several important problems with the presentation. First, the author is terribly casual about using technical terms that he has not yet defined. Second, the definitions, when they finally occur, are so light as to be unhelpful. Finally, in several places the author steps the reader through examples and carefully explains the sequence without ever specifying what determines the sequence. This is a common mistake by textbook authors, mistaking action for understanding.

Let me give a few examples. In chapter five, on Sequence Diagrams, under the heading "Define Sequence Diagrams", the first paragraph begins:

"The sequence diagram is one of two types of interaction diagrams.
The other is the collaboration diagram, which is covered in Module 7."

Since "interaction diagrams" has not been defined, all we learn from the first two sentences is that "something we don't know about" is part of a category that we don't know about, which has one other component that we don't know about (but will learn about in two more chapters). This seems like a slow start to me, and is not untypical of the authors prose.

My second complaint is that the author is too casual in formuating his definitions. This is nowhere better illustrated than the author's contention that: "It might help to understand what a system is, defined in the context of UML. A system is something that does something." (Admittedy, this is the worst that I've seen so far, but this author truly needs an editor who cares.)

My final complaint was that the author mistakes action for understanding. Any discussion of UML must solve genuinely difficult teaching problems. One is, how do you convey a sense of what object oriented programming is really about? Concepts like encapsulation, polymorphism and inheritance are very hard to convey. The author fails, singularly, to address these (and other) hard issues. Do the favorable reviewers really think that "Module 3. Introduction to Object Oriented Design" would convey even a small part of OOD to a novice? I would suggest that true novices pick up this book and look carefully at Module 3 in order to evaluate the text. If you feel you are getting a good introduction, then great. But if it seems opaque then don't count on other chapters for clarity.

Matters of definition, orderly presentation and clarity are important to students. I can not give this book a positive recommendation.

The book is very consumable. It's easy to follow and easy to learn from. For the new to UML reader it seems like such a relief to find a book that describes it so easy. This is where the problem starts, the book is simply incorrect in a lot of cases. Some examples below:

It describes the RUP as waterfall. Superimposing workflows on phases. The author thinks that the inception phase is analysis. This could essentially drive a project to failure. It's obvious the author has never successfully implemented RUP.

Some of the diagrams are wrong (i.e. The extension points are on the wrong use cases) and the emphasis on diagramming use cases instead of writing them is an obvious novice mistake.

Larman's Applying UML and Patterns is just as simple to read but is actually correct. Please at least review Larman's book before purchasing this terrible title.

I find this book an excellent hands-on tutorial to understand, read, draw, and use UML effectively. It has come just at the right time for me as I seek to develop my career as a Business Analyst. The effectiveness of system diagrams in analysis and design of a system is beyond any doubt. This book has helped me to understand the logic behind these diagrams and how to apply these in a system life cycle. I also like the progressive approach of the author.

This book explains in detail how to read, draw, and use this visual modeling language to create clear and effective design for software development projects. It also teaches object-oriented concepts and how they relate to software design and analysis. It also covers Object Constraint Language (OCL), which allows users to refine their UML diagrams. Although my quest is to apply UML techniques in web-based application, a topic not covered by this book, but since I am a novice so I was looking for a book that can help me understand the basics and this book has done just that.

Sure, this book looks good at first glance. Unfortunately, there is a lot of missleading or wrong information. For instance, in use case diagrams, the extension points are shown in the extendet use case, not the basic use case. The close relationship between sequential diagrams and collaboration diagrams is not explained. Also, the relationsship between operations in class diagrams and messages is not covered.
I got the impression, the author of this book has never partitipated in the development of object-oriented software. If you like to learn UML but not object-oriented programming this might be the book for you. Otherwise, you are better of for instance with Martin Fowler's UML Distilled.

I had to purchase this book for my TAFE course and don't have much to compare it to except Schaum's book, which was a lot more daunting and as a consequence not used very much. I thought the author generally did a good job of explaining the concepts. My main gripes are:

1 Each type of diagram had just one sample problem and solution. It would have been good to have more, especially for me since the teachers of our course didn't provide us with any homework on UML diagrams, despite it being a big part of the subject. Practicing the diagrams and then looking at a solution to see where I went wrong is a good way to learn and one example isn't enough.

2 To illustrate sequence diagrams the author used the process of compiling a file, which is something I don't really understand - despite being a computer student. Something simpler would have been a better way to illustrate the concept of sequence diagrams eg the process of mailing a letter.

Overall I think it was a good book and I must admit diagrams have never been my strong point, and UML was not very well taught in my course.

The main problem was not enough practice exercises (with answers). If this had been the case it would not have mattered if I could not relate to some of the examples, such as the process of compiling a file.

I had to purchase this book for my TAFE course and don't have much to compare it to except Schaum's book, which was a lot more daunting and as a consequence not used very much. I thought the author generally did a good job of explaining the concepts. My main gripes are:

1 Each type of diagram had just one sample problem and solution. It would have been good to have more, especially for me since the teachers of our course didn't provide us with any homework on UML diagrams, despite it being a big part of the subject. Practicing the diagrams and then looking at a solution to see where I went wrong is a good way to learn and one example isn't enough.

2 To illustrate sequence diagrams the author used the process of compiling a file, which is something I don't really understand - despite being a computer student. Something simpler would have been a better way to illustrate the concept of sequence diagrams eg the process of mailing a letter.

Overall I think it was a good book and I must admit diagrams have never been my strong point, and UML was not very well taught in my course.

The main problem was not enough practice exercises (with answers). If this had been the case it would not have mattered if I could not relate to some of the examples, such as the process of compiling a file.

After reading this good introductory book, I recommend you to read "UML 2 Illustrated", by Laurent Doldi, Oct. 2003, where you will find a detailed case study showing you how to use UML 2 to model a communications protocol layer, how to validate it by simulation and how to generate 100% code for Win32 or VxWorks.

This book is both informative and formative.

It is informative because it presents all the essentials of UML in a very friendly and detailed-enough manner.

It is formative because it motivates one into using visual modeling to do real work.

After spending two evenings reading the book, I was able to do my first diagrams to model an object-oriented project the very third day.

The book is not for experienced users, but it puts one quickly on track and it is easy to use later as a reference.

It is a good self study guide for UML beginner. It tell you the most importance in UML and teach you how to thinking in Object Oriented method.

This is a very well-written intro to UML. The book is concise, without any fluff, and immediately useful. If you want to learn UML and don't want to yawn through the 400+ page spec or lug around some oveweight, over-appendixed book, I strongly suggest checking this one out. The diagrams are simple and clear. The examples make sense. While I didn't really take any of the short quizzes after each section, in retrospect I think they can be helpful for some. As far as "bad", there really isn't any.

For experienced developers new to UML, this book also goes nicely with "Agile Modeling".

This is a very good book for people who have no idea on UML and for people who may want to brush up their skills on UML.The examples are very neatly given and I definitely like the flow of the book which makes u feel comfortable and keeps u absorbed.I was able to completely read the book in 2 days and at the end of the 2 day I was glowing with delight at having cleary understood the concepts.

I tried learning UML by using the more popular books, but had difficuly absorbing the information mainly due to time constraints. That's why I absolutely love this book - very short, great chapter layouts and plenty of examples. In fact, the examples serve excellently as a quick reference when I need to figure out how to model something. The disclaimer is that my job does not require super-professional and perfect design documents, and if you're in a similar situation I would strongly recommend this book.

This books does not overcomplicate things. I thought that UML was a difficult subject until I read this book. It presents core concepts clearly and painlessly. I've read 3 other books on UML and OO Concepts. I have found some books that are great if you have got all the time in the world to read them, but they have not gotten me to the point of being able to put UML to practical use. UML A Beginner's Guide accomplished that really quickly. It's a great core reference as well as an excellent place to start.

I found this book to be quite assistive for a beginner as myself. The details and examples have given me step-by-step information that will help me in my profession as programmer.

This book is an excellent source for people to learn UML from. It does not assume that you know anything about UML already, although I'm sure that if you did (and I didn't), this book would help you learn more.

Excellent diagrams help enforce the concepts that were presented. Each chapter has a list of questions and the answers are in the back of the book! Very helpful and well written.