Matt's Preface This book illustrates how to get from use cases to working, maintainable source code in as few steps as possible . . . but without cutting the essential corners. It's also about how to minimize the amount of rework you need to do once you've gotten to source code. Learning by Doing In this book we've tried to capture the essential qualities of Doug's ICONIX training courses- that is, the "magic qualities" of learning by doing. The ICONIX Jumpstart courses are very practical and hands-on; they draw students in by encouraging them to learn new skills by practicing, often on the real projects that they'll be returning to once the course is finished. This idea of learning by doing has long been recognized as an optimal form of education. Even at the start of the twentieth century, John Dewey, an American psychologist and edu- tional reformer, recognized that learning from experience gives rise to increasing productivity. The key is to engage the brain with practical tasks rather than to fall into the all-too-familiar "study trap" of rote learning. Memorizing long lists of names or API functions might help someone score highly on a test, but it isn't the same as understanding a subject in depth. For one thing, people tend not to retain information for very long if they've simply memorized it.
Diagramming and process are important topics in today's software development world. The UML diagramming language has come to be almost universally accepted, and is the lingua-franca of software development. Yet diagrams are little good by themselves. Process is necessary, and its importance is underscored by the number of books in recent years on Extreme Programming (XP), a process (or lack thereof) that many believe has erred too far in the direction of having no structure, no method.
Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML - Theory and Practice combines the notation of UML with a lightweight but effective process - the ICONIX process - for designing and developing software systems. The work builds on, and can be thought of as the next edition of the authors very successful Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML: A Practical Approach, which sold in excess of 37,000 units for Addison-Wesley. ICONIX sits between the free-for-all of XP and overly ridged processes such as RUP. ICONIX offers just enough structure to be successful, and has developed a growing following over the years. One evidence of that following is Sparx Systems' use of material on ICONIX in the online help for their Enterprise Architect CASE tool (80,000+ copies in the field). The Sparx tool directly supports the ICONIX process as an option. The authors also provided ICONIX training to a list of clients that includes: ESRI (global leader in geographic information systems), U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Census Bureau, and more.
