Martin Fowler is an independent consultant who has applied objects to pressing business problems for more than a decade. He has consulted on systems in fields such as health care, financial trading, and corporate finance. His clients include Chrysler, Citibank, UK National Health Service, Andersen Consulting, and Netscape Communications. In addition, Fowler is a regular speaker on objects, the Unified Modeling Language, and patterns.

Pressured with tight deadlines, application developers do not have the luxury of keeping completely up-to-date with all of the latest innovations in software engineering. Once in a great while, a tremendous resource comes along that helps these professionals become more efficient. The first two editions of UML Distilled have been perennial best-sellers because of their concise, yet thorough, nature. This eagerly-anticipated third edition allows you to get acquainted with some of the best thinking about efficient object-oriented software design using the latest version of the industry-standard for modeling software: UML 2.0. The author has retained the book's convenient format that has made it an essential resource for anyone who designs software for a living. The book describes all the major UML 2.0 diagram types, what they are intended to do, and the basic notation involved in creating and deciphering them. A true treasure for the software engineering community.

1. Introduction.