Preface

The advantage of this book lies in its restriction to practical matters. Like many innovative subjects in business computing, the development of technical literature about UML takes place in a highly dynamic manner. The economic interests of producers of relevant tools, of consultants, and of authors are obviously directed towards differentiating every topic and constructing individual opinions. However, this leads to a blurring of the essential advantages—especially with UML. The success of this approach lies in its simplicity, its practicality, and its ability to be integrated. Easily comprehensible and carefully coordinated approaches were developed from real-life problems. These approaches get project parties in different positions, as represented in every project by customer and system-developer, to work together productively on a long-term basis. An excess of methodology is counterproductive because it is only comprehensible to the expert and therefore not widely used.

That is exactly where the authors start. Recognizing the clear advantages of UML, they reduce it to its essential concepts. The authors have the courage to narrow UML appropriately from their own practical experience. The foundation is a pointblank subjective portrayal of their own project experience, which can be confirmed by anyone who has ever attempted professional systems development. Based on this experience, they critically evaluate UML. The result is a handy guide for the use of UML, with countless practice-oriented tips for conquering sub-problems in projects, and checklists to verify goals. The desire is not to present an extensive methodology. On the contrary, the examples are deliberately kept simple, which again helps with the reduction of UML to its essential elements and goals.

Therefore, a project leader who wants to professionally model, coordinate, and control UML projects, won’t be able to find solutions for every particular problem in this book. However, it will significantly ease the process of critically evaluating and selecting appropriate literature and tools. For the practice-oriented realist, this book could be the key to solving daily problems.

• Prof. Dr. Rainer Thome
• Chair of Business Administration and Business Computing,
• University of Würzburg.