Reviews for UML 2 for Dummies

1. Turgid

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, December 12th, 2009

   This is one of the worst technical books that I have ever read! This is the first review I have ever written on Amazon, which should give you an idea of just how frustrated I am with this awful book.
   
   As UML is a language for the quick and clear exchange of technical information, you could be forgiven for thinking that this book is some sort of parody, as it is anything but clear.
   
   Almost every reference to a diagram is at least two pages away from that diagram; meaning endless page flipping.
   
   The language used is painfully opaque and the structure is confused. Around page 200 out of 400, there is what amounts to a preview of the material contained in the book!
   

2. Has the details but delivery could have been better

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, November 12st, 2007

   Although the books gives you all the information you need, it's a lot easier to follow if you actually know UML2 in the first place! I found some of the chapters very dry with some of the definitions not 100% clear and some sentences definitely needed re-reading before making sense - a few parts only made sense once I got someone else (experienced in UML) to explain them to me. Despite this, the book does give good examples, the warnings/tips are well thought out and the chapter details are of a sufficient level for this book to be of practical use.

3. Not recommended

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2007

   This book was very disappointing. It's style and presentation is very old fashioned in my opinion. It's just block of text after block of text with no highlighting of important information. Diagrams pages away from where they are being discussed. UML elements not highlighted on the diagrams. Very bad examples/scenarios. I'm a software developer and I normally zip through books. This book requires a lot of effort without the payback.

4. Flawed

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, December 12th, 2006

   I was a newcomer to UML but I had good OO understanding coming into this book. I read it cover to cover to make sure I did not miss anything. Unfortunately I found this way of navigating the book to be quite dull; worse still I often could not follow the rationale for the many types of diagrams. I would have appreciated more explanation on the relative merits of one diagram or another, how they are similar and how they are different, the book sometimes gives you the impression you should do them all.
   
   Most damning though is that, as far as I can tell, there are numerous small mistakes in the diagrams. These mistakes often include wrong arrowheads or dashing of lines, text that does not match the explanation & mislabelled figure numbers. There are also too many grammatical mistakes in the main text.
   
   I'm guessing that >95% of it is factually correct, but I expected a higher standard.

5. Superb book on UML

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2006

   This book is absolutely superb. It is better than spending 3 years at Uni trying to learn UML (trust me, I've done it).
   
   It teaches you EVERYTHING on the UML2 language and it does in such a way that you actually find it hard to put it down. Its very easy to read and understand and I would strongly recommend it to anyone wanting to know about UML. Forget all the other books that look more 'professional' - thats all they do, they only look it. This book has the real substance.