Rating: 
Summary: Does exactly what Preface states - INTRO to vis_model.
Review: I strongly disagree with other reviewers who rated this book just "1 star" or "2 stars". I feel they picked a wrong book in the light of what they were looking for. That's pretty much their fault, or Amazon's fault for not publishing a good online description of the title.Here is what book's preface says: "[this book is NOT:] - a tutorial on all the ins and outs of analysis and design using UML - a tutorial on all the details in the Rational Objectory Process - an explanation of all the notation and semantics of the UML - an abridged explanation of the UML Notation - a book on software architecture or C++ design (...) This book is an introduction to the concepts needed to visualize a software system process, a notation, and a tool." IMHO, the book achieves the purpose it states in 100%. It explains what visual modeling is in principle. It ligtly explains the notation. It walks the reader through the creation of a model of! a software system using Rational Rose. It is written in nice clean English (can't say that about mine ;-) ). It contains screenshots and provides Rational Rose GUI digest and sample auto-generated code in the Appendix. It does not obscure the picture with excruciating detail or complexity of the example software system (the author consciously chose to forget about some details of the sample software system for the sake of clarity). Basically, you read the book on Saturday, digest it on Sunday, read it again over the next week (in a subway or where ever, the book is an easy read), realize where you messed up on your current project and how the Rational Rose tool could have been used to eliminate your problems, and buy another book on Visual Modeling next Saturday. This time a thick one. Terry did a good job. If you need an easy read to get a picture on what Visual Modeling is because you heard a co-worker mention "Rational Rose is cool", get the book. Otherwise r! ead Rose help files or buy some thick volume on UML and &qu! ot;tri amigos'" work.
Rating: 
Summary: Good as a quick overview
Review: I was looking for a quick overview of using Rose to create UML models. This book was exactly that. It was a quick, easy read. I learned the basics of modeling with Rose. In addition, I gained some insights into the Rational "way" of doing OO analysis and design. This book was almost exactly what I was looking for. I would like to see the next edition have more detail without a big increase in page count.
Rating: 
Summary: Totally Useless
Review: If you are a professional software developer hoping to learn the basics of UML, this book is not for you. It is pure fluff. The examples are so trivial as to be meaningless. I have yet to find a good UML book so I can't recommend another one but this book is TOTALLY USELESS.
Rating:
Summary: A great overview of Rational Rose and UML
Review: If you are getting started with Rational Rose and UML and need a book to get you up to speed fast this is the book. It pulls together a lot of key concepts extremely well. The book discusses the Rational Objectory Process and identifies where the various UML notations can be used in it. This is a great intro to this area. It was the first UML book that I read so far that brought these two together ( the language and the process ). When I want to present material to my colleagues on how to use the Rational Rose I end up going back to this book to get my program together. Even if you do not have the Rational Rose Software available to you this book teaches the material well. I recommend this book highly. There is a lot of material out there that can be extremely confusing to people just starting out. I think Terry Quatrani should get high marks in providing a easy to understand text.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Intro
Review: If you are knee deep in UML and looking to get deeper, then this book probably isn't for you. But, if you're entering the new realm of Object-Oriented Design and Analysis and need easy to understand explanations ---- You've come to the right place. TQ makes no pretense about being the final word on either Rational Rose or UML. Her stated purpose is to ease you into the murky world of the three amigo's. To this end she has hit the mark. Her explanations are concise and her diagram well placed. More than that, she gives the reader a taste of a working methodology that is sadly lacking in many of other UML books.
Rating:
Summary: Provides excellent introduction to the Rational development
Review: If you are new to UML, Rose and the whole Rational process for software development this is an excellent book to start with. It includes step-by-step instructions for constructing models with Rose software. However for detail on UML and the development process in many areas you will need to continue on with other books such as "The Unified Software Development Process". Important information is also missing on using Rose software. For example, the book does not tell you enough to be able to successfully complete Rose/C++ roundtrips. You will need more books and hopefully a good mentor/coach to help you become competent with Rose software but, again, this book is a very good place to start. I highly recommend this book for anyone starting out with Rational Rose, UML and the Rational process for software development.
Rating:
Summary: Provides excellent introduction to the Rational development
Review: If you are new to UML, Rose and the whole Rational process for software development this is an excellent book to start with. It includes step-by-step instructions for constructing models with Rose software. However for detail on UML and the development process in many areas you will need to continue on with other books such as "The Unified Software Development Process". Important information is also missing on using Rose software. For example, the book does not tell you enough to be able to successfully complete Rose/C++ roundtrips. You will need more books and hopefully a good mentor/coach to help you become competent with Rose software but, again, this book is a very good place to start. I highly recommend this book for anyone starting out with Rational Rose, UML and the Rational process for software development.
Rating: 
Summary: Why read this when there are better books on the topic
Review: If you have a good understanding of the UML (and even if you don't) this book will not enhance your knowledge. The same applies for good modeling techniques and/or OO concepts - the book doesn't teach these. Then again it does not profess that it does so why blame it. The only reason I read this book is because it came with the Rose copy we bought. Frankly, even as a guide to Rose, it doesn't add much to what the (many) Rose manuals describe. The only people that should read this book, in my humble opinion, are those with a copy of Rose but without the manuals that come with it.
Rating:
Summary: Why read this when there are better books on the topic
Review: If you have a good understanding of the UML (and even if you don't) this book will not enhance your knowledge. The same applies for good modeling techniques and/or OO concepts - the book doesn't teach these. Then again it does not profess that it does so why blame it. The only reason I read this book is because it came with the Rose copy we bought. Frankly, even as a guide to Rose, it doesn't add much to what the (many) Rose manuals describe. The only people that should read this book, in my humble opinion, are those with a copy of Rose but without the manuals that come with it.
Rating:
Summary: Not much content
Review: In the tradition of Fowler and then Quatrani, I'm going to start out by telling you what this book isn't:
1) It is not a good book
2) It is not a very useful book
3) It is not a good value for the money
Well then, what is it? It's a simple-minded tutorial of Rose and visual modeling ( heavy on the simple minded ). I was looking for a book with a lot more meat in it. This is the kind of book I might pay $7.99 for if I felt flush. The book would be more appropriately titled "Basic Visual Modeling" or something. It's not advanced enough - heck, it's not even intermediate enough. Perhaps, like Fowler, she didn't want to put much into it so she wouldn't step on the three amigos' toes since they're writing their own books on the subject. I hope those books will be better.
| 
