Rational Unified Process

"Rational Unified Process: An Introduction" by Philippe Kruchten(Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series; ISBN: 0201604590) documents the Object-oriented design process used by the Rational Corporation. In case you are not aware, the authors of UML work for Rational and they are the company that makes Rational Rose, the market leader in OO design tools.

The book outlines the process, which has many good features. One example is that the process uses the spiral methodology instead of waterfall. The book covers all phases of processes you might want to put in place in an OO project.

Unlike many OO process books for the past, this book keeps it feet on the ground and stays readable. Others in the past have usually drafted into obscure technical details.

The book has two problems. The first is that the prose is pretty stilted. Way too many sentences start with "The Rational Unified Process is". The other problem is that the book is geared around using the tools from Rational. However, it is possible to use most of the process without using the tools from Rational.

In summary, this book documents a pretty good OO design process in a very easy to understand way. If you are looking for an OO process to follow or are looking for ways to improve your existing one, this book is an excellent starting book.