UML Applied: A .NET Perspective

Rating:
Summary: Wasted one full day reading this book
Review: -Little UML that makes sense, even less .NET (not to mention the links between UML and .NET - 10% of this book?)
-Too much UML and modeling process freestyling.
-Can you take an author seriously if he keeps on quoting large blocs of text from other books and weblogs and particularly the ones from the Gilbert comic strip? How about one that not only uses "stick-man" symbol, but also provides his own personal "stick-pet" symbol?
-the whole book seems like filled with personal comments and stupid jokes.

Rating:
Summary: Not just for .NET users
Review: A curious thing about the title is its mention of .NET. Strictly, UML is independent of any environment or operating system or language. Those are implementation level details. But here, Shoemaker brings .NET into his UML discourse to show how UML can be well integrated with a .NET development process. And indeed, that is part of the book's value.

Having said this, most of the book can be read, ignoring .NET. So those of you into C++ or Java can still gain from the book. He gives lengthy, detailed explanations of defining and refining requirements. And then mapping these to components and interfaces and using these results to design architecture and components. Not a book for the impatient. Shoemaker takes time to carefully expound on the basic ideas. If you're new to UML, a deliberate slow reading might be best, to gain the most from what he is saying.

Another virtue of the book is that apart from the .NET details, it can be used years from now. (Barring any major advances in our understanding of the design process.) It is not one of those computer books that you have to replace in 2 or 3 years time.


Rating:
Summary: Nice and short
Review: While looking for .net enterprise dev books we bought this one and it supplements Enterprise development with vs .net, uml and msf quite well. One thing though is that it is apparent that the authors do not quite understand all topics they cover.