Use Cases Combined With Booch/Omt/Uml: Process and Products

Rating:
Summary: Waste of money
Review: Definitely not for novice developers, this book presents a respectable starting point for OOAD practices. Though some text/techniques did look dated; the approach, deliverables, phases were well covered and can definitely be used for mid-sized OO projects. The phases are well-explained alongwith important elements like pragmatic issues, entry-exit criteria.

For those attempting to bring more structure to their development process, this book's utility can be enhanced with knowledge of design patterns, and previous OOAD experience. One can certainly modify / improve the various deliverables covered in the book to their own needs.

I do wish for a better title and singular focus on UML, now that it is a standard. The code listings can surely be reduced and made more up-to-date. Some basic Java dev guidelines (like package names in lowercase) have been ignored.

Rating:
Summary: Texel and Williams deliver a dud.
Review: Having worked with Putnam Texel several years ago, I was excited to finally see her work published. Under her direction, the project we worked on produced some of the best analysis materials I have seen to date. I was very eager to see how she had evolved her methodology to include such modern software engineering techniques as use-cases and the UML.

As the title dictates, "Use Cases combined with ...", one would expect some steller use-case technologies presented. Unfortunately, the use-case analysis presented here are both immature and offstream. No where in the book are use-case models and their notation per the UML standard presented. The use-case scenario examples are weak and fail to cleanly flow to software design. The concept presented that use cases map to class methods emphasized the authors fail to understand "true" use-case technologies.

The rest of the book is full of home-brewed project duties and diagramming (CCDs, CCCDs, STDs, PID! s, PADs, & CIDs) which, if followed to the receipt, could quadruple your project's schedule. There fails to be an effort to show how the process can be streamlined.

The authors do present a complete flowing process which other methodolgist often fail to do. There are some good ideas and some specifics that can help scientists fill in the holes of their own methodology. I would suggest a process of this type for large scale developments. I would also suggest, however, you look elsewhere for use-case analysis techniques.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Overview of OO Projects From Start to Finish.
Review: I agree with Bruce Arbuckle that this is an excellent book, and also that the title is somewhat misleading. The feature that [e-mail] from Los Angeles, California complained about ("The rest of the book is full of home-brewed project duties and diagramming (CCDs, CCCDs, STDs, PID! s, PADs, & CIDs") I found to be an asset! Whether you are a veteran OO developer or manager, or a novice at OOA/OOD there is plenty here to borrow and put to use in developing your own style and methodology. Rarely is a complex subject like this covered so thoroughly and with such attention to detail.

Textel and Williams provide a cookbook which can be followed to the letter, or which you can modify to satisfy your own OO sensibilities. I particularly found the continual contrasting and comparing of Booch, OMT, and UML to be interesting and edifying.

The Project Management spreadsheet was an unexpected bonus. By following the phases described in this book step by step, producing the recommended deliverables, and using the review items for each phase, anyone with half a brain could successfully manage an OO project -- even someone in management! :-)

Rating:
Summary: Save your time and money
Review: This book is to difficult for OO-novices and too easy for advanced OO-practicioners. It has 450 pages approx. but most of it are just programming listings which are of no use to anybody

Rating:
Summary: Waste of money
Review: This is quite the worst OO book that I have come across. The presentation of OO principles is very confused, and even wrong in some key areas. The approach to use cases clearly comes from a distant planet - "It's a use case Jim, but not as we know it!". The title of the book is extremely misleading. As for the software engineering process presented herein - NOOOOOO! You CAN'T be serious! The process is just byzantine in it's complexity!
A friend of mine sent his copy of this book back to the publishers and got a refund. I wish I had!