Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed in Colorado
Review: Be forewarned. This book expresses very little original thought and is merely a collection of "other peoples" articles. This provides for very little logical flow for someone wanting to apply RUP. Where are the examples, tips of the trade, and how-to's?Shame on me for not having gone to the book store first to look at the book as the online description gives no indication that it was in a periodical format. I expected more from Scott after having read is other great "original thought" books.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed in Colorado
Review: Be forewarned. This book expresses very little original thought and is merely a collection of "other peoples" articles. This provides for very little logical flow for someone wanting to apply RUP. Where are the examples, tips of the trade, and how-to's? Shame on me for not having gone to the book store first to look at the book as the online description gives no indication that it was in a periodical format. I expected more from Scott after having read is other great "original thought" books.
Rating: 
Summary: Scott hits the nail on the head with this one.
Review: I found this book very useful. Scott ulls together a body of writings that are insightful and serve to fill in many of the holes in the UP. His commentary ties ties the articles together in such a way that the concepts are readily applicable to just about any development metodology. This book helped me to provide the necessary explanation and focus to a project team that was about to lose its way. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Scott hits the nail on the head with this one.
Review: I found this book very useful. Scott ulls together a body of writings that are insightful and serve to fill in many of the holes in the UP. His commentary ties ties the articles together in such a way that the concepts are readily applicable to just about any development metodology. This book helped me to provide the necessary explanation and focus to a project team that was about to lose its way. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: The RUP would be RIP without this book
Review: I haven't read a bad book yet, and this is another good one. The reason I haven't read a bad book is because I read all of the reviews on Amazon.com and then go to a bookstore to get a feel for the book before finally buying it from Amazon.com. This screening process I perform allows me to always choose a book worth my time reading. The Unified Process Elaboration Phase, like all ther other books I've read, is a really good book. The author Scott Ambler provides great introductions to each chapter about the Software Development magazine articles that follow in each chapter that he appropriatley selects as relevant to the current workflow discussed as pertaining to the Unified Process. Scott Ambler is a seasoned software engineer with many real world analogies, experiences and examples to share and is an effective writer, as are all the authors of the articles contained in this book. It would take years reading a good software engineering magazines' articles and filtering out the relevant ones to particular topics to get the same knowledge this book provides. Scott obviously knows what he's talking about in his leads into the articles.
Rating:
Summary: Surprising relevant collection of articles with great intro
Review: I haven't read a bad book yet, and this is another good one. The reason I haven't read a bad book is because I read all of the reviews on Amazon.com and then go to a bookstore to get a feel for the book before finally buying it from Amazon.com. This screening process I perform allows me to always choose a book worth my time reading. The Unified Process Elaboration Phase, like all ther other books I've read, is a really good book. The author Scott Ambler provides great introductions to each chapter about the Software Development magazine articles that follow in each chapter that he appropriatley selects as relevant to the current workflow discussed as pertaining to the Unified Process. Scott Ambler is a seasoned software engineer with many real world analogies, experiences and examples to share and is an effective writer, as are all the authors of the articles contained in this book. It would take years reading a good software engineering magazines' articles and filtering out the relevant ones to particular topics to get the same knowledge this book provides. Scott obviously knows what he's talking about in his leads into the articles.
Rating: 
Summary: Complete the Unified Process Elaboration Phase
Review: I put this book series together, this is just one of four books, to help provide an alternate viewpoint on one of the most important concepts in the software industry: the start at a common software process for object-oriented and component-based development. As a columnist and contributing editor at software development I am fortunate to work with some of the best minds in the software industry. As a consultant focused on object-oriented development and software processes I am also fortunate to put into practice many of the techniques and technologies that a lot of people only get to read about. I became interested in software process in the mid-1990s, and even wrote two books about the topic (Process Patterns and More Process Patterns, order them now!) in the late 1990s. At around the same time the Unified Process (UP), mostly from the same folks that brought us the UML, was also introduced. Although we came from two different directions, both my work and the work of the folks at Rational Corporation had significant similarities. But we also differed on a few things, such as the scope of an effective process. Whereas the initial version of the Unified Process focuses on the development aspect of software, and does a pretty good job of it, with my process patterns work I chose to also consider production issues and multi-project (software portfolio) issues as well. As a result I quickly saw some holes that needed filling in the UP. At Software Development I also had access to a wealth of material written by some of the leading minds in the industry, and one day it came to me that there would be a lot of value in taking the best of the best of this material and putting it together into a book. After going through the back issues I soon realized that there was so many great articles, every issue seems to have 7 or 8 solid articles (*12 issues a year * 10 years), that I really had a book series on my hands. Anyway, this book presents a collection of best practices for enhancing and extending the existing and proposed workflows for the Elaboration Phase. The book consists of some new material that I wrote, summarizing process patterns for extending the UP, and proposes two new workflows: Infrastructure Management to take into account the cross-project issues such as a shared architecture, portfolio management, and strategic reuse management; and the Operations and Support workflow to take into account the complexities of operating and supporting software once it is in Production. I also propose a Production phase, the fifth phase in my enhanced lifecycle for the UP, which is covered in the fourth volume of this series (likely out in late 2000 or early 2001, sorry for the wait). I also present alternate techniques that you can use to replace and/or enhance existing best practices in the UP -- you do in fact have a choice. In short, I hope that you find this book of value. Anyone serious about improving the productivity of their software organizations should consider the books in this series as well as my two other process books, Process Patterns and More Process Patterns, also available on Amazon. I think you'll like the material that I've gathered. Also, in case you didn't know I'm a contributor to the Rational Unified Process, a instance of the Unified Process.
Rating:
Summary: Needed advice
Review: People attempting to apply the Unified Process definitely need help, and Ambler has done a fine job providing some. As a Rational certified instructor, author of two books on process patterns, and someone who really applies the UP, he's well qualified to assist others. The articles he has pulled together help cover some of the missing information on the UP and his commentaries unite everything into a useful whole. I recommend this book totally. [One complaint - the editor/publisher really dropped the ball on some of the illustations, but buy the book anyway.]
Rating:
Summary: The RUP would be RIP without this book series
Review: The guy from Toronto got it right. This is a great book that collects really good articles written by some of my favorite writers. I first read the Construction Phase book then quickly bought this book and the Inception phase book and have found all three to be valuable. My company is trying to implement the RUP right now and struggled because there was clearly some missing techniques. This book series presents a lot of what is missing in the RUP, and it really helped us to fill in a lot of the missing stuff. Too bad Ambler and Constantine don't work for Rational.
Rating:
Summary: The RUP would be RIP without this book series
Review: The guy from Toronto got it right. This is a great book that collects really good articles written by some of my favorite writers. I first read the Construction Phase book then quickly bought this book and the Inception phase book and have found all three to be valuable. My company is trying to implement the RUP right now and struggled because there was clearly some missing techniques. This book series presents a lot of what is missing in the RUP, and it really helped us to fill in a lot of the missing stuff. Too bad Ambler and Constantine don't work for Rational.
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