Reviews for Schaum's Outline of UML (Schaum's Outline Series)

1. Terrible if I am honest

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, February 12nd, 2006

   This book is NOT a good book for learning or referencing UML.

   The authors have a terrible writing style, the wording and struture is awful, which makes it incredibly difficult to read, and follow.
   Whilst the fluency is none existent.

   The diagrams and examples are random, there is no noticable theme, and the introduction to some complex diagrams follows a 'deep end' & 'thrown in' approach.

   In all I can see no reason for this book. If you are learning UML it is far too unhelpful, if you require a reference look elsewhere.

2. Just the Job

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, September 12th, 2002

   I bought this book having also considered "UML Distilled" haveing compared the two sets of Amazon customer reviews. I think I made the right choice!
   I needed a book which would tell me what I wanted to know in an easy to read form. What I needed to know was some basic principles that I could use to prepare slides to teach work colleagues the basic principles - nothing too fancy or complex.
   I found this book very easy to use.
   One word of warning - don't be put off by the first few pages, which dive straight into hibbledy-gibbledy incomprehensible stuff. Having impressed us with their size of their vocabulary the authors treat us well from then on.

3. Good book with lots of examples, not quite perfect though...

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2002

   I found this book excellent for explaining the basics and a lot of the advanced topics in UML. The amount of examples it includes is second to none in my experience and at the price is well worth the spend. I'm doing a software engineering course and found this book explained the material really well, for the most part. I would recommend using this book in conjunction with Using UML : Software Engineering With Objects and Components by Perdita Stevens and Rob Pooley and I found that by using both I've been able to understand UML quite easily. The Pooley/Stevens book has a lot more explanation on how to design, how UML fits into design and also of the basic concepts of Object Orientation. If you can afford it get both, but if you're looking for a cheap book to learn UML from then this is the best you are likely to find.

4. Good first UML book

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2002

   This book is cheap, short and useful. This is in contrast to many of the 90-odd UML books sold by Amazon which are expensive, waffly and pointless rambling fireside chats with various UML 'gurus'. This book teaches you how to use UML using two case studies. It has no-frills descriptions and examples of all the major UML diagram types in common use. It also has a fairly decent Notation Summary at the end. I have been using UML for two years and this is the only book I still use. Spend the money you save by buying this book on one of the excellent new breed of cheap UML tools. Happy modelling.

5. Does what it claims at the right price

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2001

   This book is perfectly adequate for learning the basics of UML. I have not brought any other book on UML so I cannot compare it to others, but the fact that I haven't brought any other book suggests that I learnt what I wanted using this book. The book doesn't teach you software analysis or design but a this price is definitely worth 5 stars - and I have money left to buy a book on design.