In Detail

Most books about UML describe it almost in its entirety. Inevitably you're left with only a superficial knowledge of the range of UML elements, without a deep and intuitive understanding of how to apply UML as a whole to real world design problems. This book doesn't set out to cover all of UML, but instead pulls together those parts of UML with immediate practical relevance and presents them as part of a coherent process for using UML in your actual development projects.

This book is designed to be read while you work on a real project. After an initial review of the essentials of UML and the design process, it begins with the modeling of a business system and its business processes, in this case an airport. Then the IT system intended to serve that business process is described and analysed. Finally the integration of the system into the production environment is covered in detail.

The book can be used in two ways: it can be read through as a thorough grounding in how UML really works in practice; in addition it can be used as stand alone guide to that particular aspect of your own project. Both result in an intuitive understanding of how to actually use UML.

If you've read the UML documentation or a guide to the UML syntax, but don't feel you really know where to start with UML on a live project, then this unique book is what you need. Written as a practical case study, the book sets out to give you the intuitive feel for UML you need to confidently add it to your core development toolkit. The authors walk through a rich analysis and design scenario, explaining which parts of UML to use, and how to use them. The emphasis is on the systematic and practical application of UML to real business cases.

Read Chapter 2: “Basic Principles & Background” (PDF – 721KB)

Approach

The book is uniquely practical. A richly textured case study is used throughout the book. Although some aspects of the Airport Passenger Services business process are simplified for sake of clarity and efficiency, it provides a comprehensive practical grounding for theoretical UML knowledge. The case study itself was developed in partnership with employees of Zurich Airport.

Who this book is for

The book was written for business analysts, technical architects and developers. It does not require detailed programming knowledge, nor is prior experience of UML mandatory. It shows how, with UML, simple models of business processes and specification models can be created and read with little effort.

UML 2.0 in Action