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Review
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Reviewed: January, 2005 |
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Reviewer:
Jean "Caroline" Billingsley |
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At approximately 900 pages, this is a strikingly
large-sized book. Of course, over the years, I've read larger books than
this. But for some unknown reason, I did not believe this book was going to
be so long. Hence the reason, I was in a slight state of shock after taking
it home.
However, after some thought, I changed my mind because
in order for any competent author (in this case, authors John Erik Hansen
and Carsten Thomsen) to properly cover enterprise system design, an
extensive number of pages would be needed. That's a lot to chew on in one
sitting.
Nevertheless, this book is not going to teach you OOP
(object-oriented programming), UML (Unified Modeling Language), or .NET. You
should already be familiar and comfortable with these concepts before
starting the book. However, don't worry too much. Hansen and Thomsen provide
at least a basic definition of every new concept during the course of the
book.
The first chapter starts with creating a basic model
using Visio that can be used for VB.NET and/or C# classes and a database
model. Throughout the book, the exercises are extremely helpful and include
step-by-step instructions with screen shots. I strongly suggest completing
the exercises in order to get the full benefit from reading the book.
Although I like the content, I did not find the format
very beneficial. Visually, the book could be better. The book's format and
style are formal and standard. Each chapter consists of an introduction,
footnotes, "Note" / "Tip" sections, exercises, possibly figures / tables,
and a "Summary" section. While the introduction is useful for insight
regarding the contents of each chapter, the "Summary" section is not that
helpful. I've seen much more creative chapter summaries with included Q & A
sections.
However, this book prevails in its content. The content
is not only worthy because of Hansen's and Thomsen's thorough explanations
but also the playful tone added to the explanations. For instance, while
explaining the importance of good design, the authors state that if "you
design it in such a way that makes the solution cost $1 million, . . .,
you've crossed that line and introduced a design flaw" (page 45). The
footnote for that sentence reads "Does the Oracle advertisement ring a bell
here?"
Another example of the lighthearted tone includes the
list of bad products as a result of bad design found on page 46. Examples
include "Air bags in cars that inflate unexpectedly or at the wrong time",
"Poisonous toys", "Rubber boots with holes in the heels" and "Software
solutions that don't solve the users' needs".
As stated above, Hansen and Thomsen are meticulous in
their explanations. For example, even though the reader should be familiar
with OOP, you will find a short explanation for constructors and destructors
in chapter five (page 170 - 171). Likely, most readers will have an
understanding of this already. Nevertheless, I don't believe that it takes
anything away from the content, but rather, it adds to the flow of the
material.
Probably, you are going to find some discussions which
you understood beforehand. While at the same time, this book doesn't cover
everything about .NET, UML, and MSF. However, it does provide step-by-step
clarification of the subject in a way that will benefit almost every reader.
I truly enjoyed reading this book because of the
organization, detailed explanations and tone. This is a great book for
designing enterprise solutions. The book claims that it can be used a
reference book, but I believe it should be read from beginning to end
because of the layout of the chapters and dependency from the previous
chapters.
Overall, I would recommend this book to any developer
or project manager who will be using Microsoft Visio and MSF.
Caroline Billingsley, holds a MCP certification in Visual Studio
6.0 and is currently studying for .NET certification. She's been programming
commercial software applications since 1997. She started her career in UNIX
/ C/C++ but was soon thrown into the Microsoft world using Visual C++ and
Visual Basic 6.0. She's been flipping back and forth ever since. Recently,
she was promoted as Director of Information Technology at a local Marketing
firm in Denver. |
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