It's rare that a computing book seizes on a wide range of emerging technologies and presents them in just the right detail. Understanding UML does just that, focusing on the latest and greatest in the use of object-oriented design and the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and detailing how to use Java to implement a sales database on the Web. The authors begin with an outline of the software engineering cycle. They escort the reader through the jargon of a typical software project, including an introduction to object modeling and the basics of today's iterative software development cycle. Harmon and Watson describe the basic document types in the UML notation. The authors also feature a quick overview of Java and an introduction to computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools and diagrams, which are useful in Business Process Re-engineering (BPR). (The authors choose Popkin's Software's SA/Object Architect as their CASE tool of choice here.) The heart of the book is a case study of a hypothetical Web sales database for a small company, covering the project from analysis and design to implementation in code. This guide does a good job of presenting the fundamentals of UML and object-oriented modeling with enough detail to keep those who are averse to software engineering happy. Relevant source code (in Java) is included so you can see some of the finished product in this exceptionally balanced and informative text. While not comprehensive, this guide is all you