Rating: 
Summary: UML you can understand
Review: Our company is interested in UML, and several people had bought two books by the guys known as The Three Amigos - Booch, Jaconsen, and Rumbaugh (the User Guide and the Software Development Process). I started reading and quickly found that these books moved too far, too fast - the same experience that the others had.I took a look at the UML books in my local computer bookstore and decided to take a chance with this one. I'm glad I did. If you don't have a heavy Computer Science background, you'll find this to be an excellent introduction to UML. Schmuller provides a general introduction, followed by examples of all the main types of diagrams. He follows this up with a case study of automating a restaurant. In every instance the author constantly provides examples from the real world, so it's almost impossible to fail to understand. Schmuller's writing style is great; his background in magazines shows off here, as opposed to the "scholars writing for other scholars" approach of many of the other UML books. The "Twenty-four Hours" format puts the information into bite-size pieces, so you're never overwhelmed with new facts. People with a heavy computer science background will probably find this book doesn't go into enough detail, but the rest of us will be very happy. I'd suggest that if you had a small amount of programming experience you'd be ideal for this book, but anyone who's had some experience of computers can get a lot out of it. After I read this book I came back to the Three Amigos books and suddenly found I could understand them. In fact, I could dip into the books at pretty much any point and follow what was happening. With my new-found knowledge I offered to teach an intoductory course on UML for the people who were struggling with the Three Amigos books, and as I created my outline I realized how well thought-out Schmuller's book is. I didn't have to add much to what he'd written, and I began to realize that his examples must have been carefully chosen to make things very clear. In short - if UML seems like a hard slog to you, or you just think you need a passing knowledge, get this book. If you find that you want to go further, you'll now have the kind of knowledge that the Three Amigos expect from their readers.
Rating:
Summary: Complete practical guide, with no more theory than necessary
Review: Part I and 200 pages take the reader step by step through an introduction to object-oriented software design concepts and then through each of the UML diagram types. Part II and 110 pages provide a case study in chronological sequence with the UIML diagrams shown for each step. The case study ends with a brief intro to design patterns, a hot interview topic for developers. Part III and 68 pages provide an interesting chapter on UML in embedded systems and a look at where the UML is heading as far as the GUI and expert systems. The book is clearly written by a PhD who is a former PC technical journal editor. The writer is now an analyst and UML practitioner, and his working experience in the field makes the book a very practical guide. The UML diagrams are clear and simple. UML is pretty much for computer professionals, so this book is most useful for professionals who need to quickly get up to date with the UML, the worldwide language for modeling software systems. For those planning to use UML on a project for the first time, the book's organization makes it a useful reference for the vocabulary and notation of the UML. Since the UML is not yet a language that can be used to generate code with commonly available tools, the book has plenty of diagrams and Q&A at the end of each chapter but not the sample code that many Teach Yourself readers are accustomed to finding. So this one can be read in a comfortable chair with your computer turned off. Read this first and then if necessary dig into the more technical Addison Wesley Object Technology Series where each title is blessed by the three creators of the UML - Booch, Jacobson, and Rumbaugh. Any fear about this still new thing will be gone. You will be able to use the UML when you complete this book!
Rating:
Summary: Great beginner introduction to UML
Review: UML has a harsh learning curve due to a paradox: it is full of little details, which are hard to understand without seeing the big picture, and vice versa. Compound that with all the fancy language found in most UML books and you're in for a whole lot of frustration. This book is good for taking your first steps in UML. You get a view of the big picture as well as the details in a short enough time so that it all can gel conceptually. After reading "Teach Yourself UML in 24 Hours" you won't be ready yet to put UML on your resume - but it will save you at least that much time reading the more advanced UML books.
Rating:
Summary: ideal book for learning UML quickly
Review: UML is easy! should take a smart person 30 minutes! This book is free of the double talk in so many other books. There is a lot of lahtedah in the books on this subject! People like to feel exalted by reading a book full of double talk on an easy subject. Avoid the books by Booch, Fowler and Larman. UML is like CMM and SDLC done for appearances! Such an elegant topic for namedropping at cocktail parties! Get through this and read about patterns. The Design Patterns book by Vlissides, Johnson, etc is horrible but there are other recent books on patterns A professor of mine once expressed by thoughts to a word: "I read Grady Booch's OO book from 1992(?) 3 times and then asked myself What did I learn? NOTHING!"
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