Rating: 
Summary: Great UML book for students who have some background in OOD
Review: Being a second year university student, OOD&A is not something that will be taught to me until a forth year course. But, if many of you are like me, you don't like waiting, you want to know now! This is where Larman's book comes in. It covers all the important aspects of OOD&A in a logical, professional and, most importunately to me, practical manner. (How many university text books have you read that have to many theoretical examples that make you want to fall asleep on your desk and start dreaming sports cars and super models). Using the point-of-sale terminal (POST) example makes it easy to follow the important aspects of UML without getting bogged down with overly technical details. I also like the examples that show the difference between "worse" and "better" design. I seem to have past experience with "worse" OO design.The only word of warning before buying this book is to have some general knowledge of what OOD&A is all about and why it is important to know. Without this background you might find the book a little bit tedious to read.
Rating: 
Summary: practical advice
Review: buy the Sams book by Schmuller "Learn UML in 24 Hours" and the "C# Design Patterns" book by Cooper good grief...UML is simple enough to learn in 30 minutes
buy a straightforward book that has NO padding Only Larner, Booch, or Fowler could expand the subject into many pages using padding. If you liked the book, you are one of:
(1) a sheep
(2) his friend
(3) demented
Rating:
Summary: practical advice
Review: buy the Sams book by Schmuller "Learn UML in 24 Hours" and the "C# Design Patterns" book by Cooper good grief...UML is simple enough to learn in 30 minutes
buy a straightforward book that has NO padding Only Larner, Booch, or Fowler could expand the subject into many pages using padding. If you liked the book, you are one of:
(1) a sheep
(2) his friend
(3) demented
Rating:
Summary: Concise and easy-to-read
Review: Craig Larman provides the reader with simple, easy-to-follow examples of UML and pattern application, with few deep theoretical or philisophical discussions of development process. This style offers the new user of UML a good guide to applied modeling concepts, without bogging he/she down in academic arguments. If you are going to buy a single book to learn UML, I highly recommend this one, as it goes beyond simply describing the notation, and illustrates its use through simple guidelines. Other books are necessary to fully understand the complexities of UML, patterns, and design process, but this one fills a huge gap for the beginner market.
Rating:
Summary: one of the best books on the subject
Review: Get this book and you will know how to use the UML to accomplish a goal. Most UML books just give it to you and say "here it is." This book actually presents a process you follow; moreover, its a very intuitive process with IMHO very little dogma. You dont have to create a particular dude's idea of what is and isnt a proper class (i.e. objectory, RUP, etc.). Its a simple intuitive approach that Larman takes. Buy this book, read it, then learn the other dude's approaches. IMHO this book is an Agile Modeling book written before Agile Modeling became vogue.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing - This is 'THE' UML Book.
Review: Great job Craig!!! The books not only an excellent way of learning UML & Design patterns, it is an easy one to read. It covers all the phases of the development process from conceptualization to maintainence. A MUST READ. The book is divided in 8 parts namely 1. Introduction 2. Plan And Elaborate Phase ( Beginning the case study, requirements, use cases ) 3. Analyze Phase(1) - Conceptual model, system behavior( sequence diagrams and contracts ) 4. Design Phase(1) - Real Use Cases, Collaboration diagrams, GRASP, class diagrams 5. Construct Phase - Mappng Designs to code, sample solution 6.Analyze Phase(2) - 7. Design Phase(2) -Mre GRASP 8. Special topics( Other UML Notation, frmaeworks, patterns etc ) It was fun to read it while learning. Infact the notes enclosed in a box are an excellent reference( I have them in a word doc now...)
Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: I thought Larman was an excellent book on the APPLICATION of UML and patterns in the real world. I was really impressed with the discussion of project life cycle issues related to OO - this contains first rate advice and is, above all, the reason I give this book 5 stars. This book gives a very practical approach to applying OO using UML and patterns. You need to read this book cover to cover to get the most out of it. One look at the contents page will show you that it's not the best UML reference book or book on patterns. If that's what you want then look elsewhere. Some reviewers here treat this book as unworthy of software professionals. Hmmm. Well, chaps ... it sure ain't for beginners. I've been working with distributed OO systems since the late 80s, have read practically every popular book on OO, OMT, Booch and UML and this is one of the most useful I've read. Get a good book on patterns (something more readable than GoF but get GoF too!), a good UML primer ('UML Distilled' and 'Using UML', maybe) and Larman. Read Larman first to give you a sense of context and the others just to get a better handle on the nuts and bolts of UML/Patterns. Larman offers wisdom and will help you get more out of the other tomes. Most other books in this area merely offer knowledge and examples. Larman gives you a framework with which to get the most out of UML and patterns.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book to start learning OO paradigm
Review: I try to learn OO for about 2 years. It's very difficult to me to learn it. This book helps me much. By reading the book, i realize that building a good OO-based application is not that difficult. The author has provided easy steps to be followed. If you want to learn how to build a masterpiece app, buy this book
Rating:
Summary: Great end-to-end application of UML
Review: I wanted a book that: a) Introduced UML b) Wrapped a process around UML and actually apply it to via a case study c) Refer to common design idioms (patterns) where applicable d) Use a modern language for any illustration but not get bogged down in length code samples Craig comes out on top on all 4 accounts. He cuts through a lot of the jargon (explaining clearly) and even spends time on requirements specification and use cases (analysis and design - and "actually" differentiates between them). Most authors merely give a 2 page gloss over on use cases - yet they also state what a core part of analysis they form. Craig gives them the attention they deserve. He also does a great job on collaboration diagrams and appropriately includes a second iteration in the development process, so the architect can see how the diagrams from UML are intended to evolve from one development cycle to the next. He then takes some of the popular gang of four patterns and explains in UML notation how these could be applied in subsequent iterations. Overall a very good introduction. Although no one book can cover everything on a topic, Craig does what a lot of other authors flounder to achieve in books double the size.
Rating:
Summary: Primo primer on UML & patterns in an agile context
Review: I was not able to learn from this book what to apply, why and where. Maybe the development cycle should indeed be followed as presented in the book. But why... it's not clear. What are the needs of a development activity? How do they translate into methodologies, good practices? Why do that and not the other? These are important questions left unanswered. If I'm going UML I do want to know beforehand what and why will it help me gain and what to avoid (I found out why and what, but it's not this book that enlightened me:( ). Instead, I find a baroque demonstration of scholarly correct style, an example of development perfect like a Barbie doll :(( all smile all pink no problem, which is not the case in the real world...
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