Structure of the Book

Chapter 1 gives an introduction to the UML: what it is, the different meanings it has to different people, and where it came from.

Chapter 2 talks about software process. Although this is strictly independent of the UML, I think that it's essential to understand process in order to see the context of something like the UML. In particular, it's important to understand the role of iterative development, which has been the underlying approach to process for most of the OO community.

I've organized the rest of the book around the diagram types within the UML. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss the two most useful parts of the UML: class diagrams (core) and sequence diagrams. Even though this book is slim, I believe that you can get the most value out of the UML by using the techniques that I talk about in these chapters. The UML is a large and growing beast, but you don't need all of it.

Chapter 5 goes into detail on the less essential but still useful parts of class diagrams. Chapters 6 through 8 describe three useful diagrams that shed further light on the structure of a system: object diagrams, package diagrams, and deployment diagrams.

Chapters 9 through 11 show three further useful behavioral techniques: use cases, state diagrams (although officially known as state machine diagrams, they are generally called state diagrams), and activity diagrams. Chapters 12 through 17 are very brief and cover diagrams that are generally less important, so for these, I've only provided a quick example and explanation.

The inside covers summarize the most useful parts of the notation. I've often heard people say that these covers are the most valuable part of the book. You'll probably find it handy to refer to them as you're reading some of the other parts of the book.