Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design (Head First) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Brett D. Mclaughlin, Gary Pollice, Dave West
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $27.45
You Save: $22.54 (45%)
New (44) Used (13) from $21.50
Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 14076
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Pages: 634
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 8 x 1.3
ISBN: 0596008678
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.117
EAN: 9780596008673
Publication Date: November 27, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"Head First Object Oriented Analysis and Design is a refreshing look at subject of OOAD. What sets this book apart is its focus on learning. The authors have made the content of OOAD accessible, usable for the practitioner."
Ivar Jacobson, Ivar Jacobson Consulting
"I just finished reading HF OOA&D and I loved it! The thing I liked most about this book was its focus on why we do OOA&D-to write great software!"
Kyle Brown, Distinguished Engineer, IBM
"Hidden behind the funny pictures and crazy fonts is a serious, intelligent, extremely well-crafted presentation of OO Analysis and Design. As I read the book, I felt like I was looking over the shoulder of an expert designer who was explaining to me what issues were important at each step, and why."
Edward Sciore, Associate Professor, Computer Science Department, Boston College
Tired of reading Object Oriented Analysis and Design books that only makes sense after you're an expert? You've heard OOA&D can help you write great software every time-software that makes your boss happy, your customers satisfied and gives you more time to do what makes you happy.
But how?
Head First Object-Oriented Analysis & Design shows you how to analyze, design, and write serious object-oriented software: software that's easy to reuse, maintain, and extend; software that doesn't hurt your head; software that lets you add new features without breaking the old ones. Inside you will learn how to: - Use OO principles like encapsulation and delegation to build applications that are flexible
- Apply the Open-Closed Principle (OCP) and the Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) to promote reuse of your code
- Leverage the power of design patterns to solve your problems more efficiently
- Use UML, use cases, and diagrams to ensure that all stakeholders are communicating clearly to help you deliver the right software that meets everyone's needs.
By exploiting how your brain works, Head First Object-Oriented Analysis & Design compresses the time it takes to learn and retain complex information. Expect to have fun, expect to learn, expect to be writing great software consistently by the time you're finished reading this!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 The most creative presentation of software design principles! (And especially for Beginners) December 11, 2006
JANMC
38 out of 41 found this review helpful
Am I really the first to write a review on this new installment? Well, let me start with a huge five stars for this new addition to the Head First series!
I had been waiting for this book to hit the shelves a while, since I absolutely loved the innovative approach of the Head First Design patterns book. This one was no different in the way it clearly and creatively presented key principles to good object-oriented design and educated the reader on how to approach designing software for the real world from requirements gathering all the way to anticipating and designing for change.
A few things about this book - in my opinion, there is probably no better way to present the world of software design to a beginner. Instead of talking about abstract concepts, the writers present the material using concrete scenarios, and through-out the book, the reader is encouraged heavily to think through the pitfalls and problems and come up with solutions - there is no better way to learn. There are lots of exercises and even specific places to write ones ideas down.
Some topics covered are of course good object oriented principles like encapsulation and delegation, requirements gathering, use cases, anticipating changes, class diagrams, UML and more. The book only briefly touches (but does not go into too much detail) on state diagrams, sequence diagrams, unit testing and other concepts which are a huge part of software design, in the last chapter. While it does not go into these subjects deeply, it does not leave the reader completely without any knowledge on these topics either.
It does cover more than enough to enable a reader to become very well versed in architectural principles. Best of all, the information is presented in a way where it will stick forever. The whole point is not to cover everything there is to know, but for you to really GET IT, on what is truly crucial to know.
This book is not for seasoned architects or for those who do not appreciate comical diagrams and pictures on every page (Even though, anyone with a sense of humor would appreciate the fun way the information was presented). If however, someone is confused about object oriented design and has only heard the buzz worlds but doesn't know how it all comes together - this book will ensure that they are never confused again. Not only that, but after reading this book, they will be armed with tried and tested principles of experience of what kind of design works for long term solutions vs what is a nightmare.
Another thing to mention is that all the code examples in this book are in Java (as all Head First books are). This is certainly not a problem, even if you do not code in Java, because the principles are the same no matter the language, and C# .NET users in particular will not have any problems following the code examples.
The book does assume prior programming knowledge of an object oriented language in order to follow the code. This is not a book to learn how to write code in a programming language. It teaches how to design and architect your project, with the whole software life-cycle in mind.
There are a few useful appendixes in the back to quickly define and explain the basics of software design elements used in the book (like UML for instance).
Overall, it is a great book for anyone interested in software design principles! Best of all, you will get through this book QUICKLY, because with the creative and fun way that you will be learning, it will be hard to put down.
Another great Head First title December 13, 2006
E. Wuehler (Portland, OR)
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
First off, I'm already a fan of the Head First series - especially the Head First Design Patterns book. This book follows the same entertaining style and keeps your attention page after page. To me, there are two kinds of Head First books, ones relating to technologies like Java, Servlets & JSPs, EJB, etc and ones that cover a more traditionally academic topics like Design Patterns and this book, OO Analysis and Design. Personally, I like the Head First treatment on the academic topics better than the others. So, if you weren't a fan of Head First Java (for example) you might want to give this book (or the Design Patterns one) a try.
Specifically for this book - I really liked the chapter layout and the progression as each chapter builds upon the next. The chapters explain the basics of OO principles, ease you into Use Cases and how to write good ones, and continues building upon OO Design principles. When the Head First Design Patterns book came out, we purchased a bunch for the office and held a few "lunch and learn" classes on design patterns for the team at work. I can easily see doing the same thing with this book, as the Head First books make it easy to use as instructional manuals as well.
If you have found other books (lectures, articles, etc) on OO Analysis and Design a bit intimidating or conceptually difficult to grasp, this is the book for you.
For a change, OOA&D is made interesting and even fun December 23, 2006
calvinnme (Fredericksburg, Va)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book uses O'Reilly's successful "Head First" approach to teach the reader object-oriented analysis and design. The "Head First" books look somewhat like comic books at first, but the approach really works well at getting you to remember important concepts. The books tend to have lots of graphics, conversations between imaginary characters that are personified versions of important concepts, and photos that look like they were taken in the 40's and 50's with caption bubbles on them. This may seem cheesy, but I've found it to work well. The book assumes you know Java, but it does not use Java 5 because that version introduces lots of new features to the Java language that might hang the reader up on the syntax. The book has many programming exercises in it, and it is important to do them all if you really want to get the most from this book. There is also lots of example code, usually with handwritten captions and arrows pointing to parts of the code that the authors are trying to point out as good or bad examples of particular concepts.
The book covers such old staples of OOA&D as properly gathering requirements, dealing with changing requirements, writing flexible code and also a mini-tutorial on UML, domain analysis, use cases, the four design principles, object-orientation concepts, and iteration and testing. The final chapter is just a review of the OOA&D lifecycle. There are two appendices. The first appendix is dedicated to the "top ten topics we didn't cover". That appendix briefly introduces anti-patterns, CRC cards, metrics, unit testing, and refactoring, among a few other topics. The second appendix clearly reviews concepts specific to object-orientation, since it is very important that the reader completely understand these terms and their meanings as well as their functions.
I've taken a graduate course on object-oriented analysis and design, and I've also read several books on the subject. The class and the books made it seem like a dull dry but necessary subject, and I'm sure that these other resources probably covered the concepts presented in this book and then some. However, I actually remember what I read in this book, and I found it interesting to boot. I would therefore highly recommend this book to newbies as well as those that think they know something about OOA&D. I'm sure you'll learn something. Just don't buy this as a reference book. It is strictly about getting concepts into your head and then having you practice those concepts via exercises.
C# Code is available for this book from user forum May 18, 2007
biblomaven
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
If you are a C# programmer there is a link to the equivalent C# sample code for each chapter in the user forums of the book's web site.
Plenty of real-world examples and applications makes for a top recommendation. March 12, 2007
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
If you're a software developer or engineer - or a library catering to such patrons - you have to keep Head First Object-Oriented Analysis & Design in your reference section. It appeals to newcomers to the field, offering all the basics on how to analyze, design and write serious object-oriented software, and explains the principles in language that assumes no prior familiarity with such analysis. Plenty of real-world examples and applications makes for a top recommendation.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
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