blogs.jhu.edu/blawler

Teaching an introduction to UML class tomorrow and the next day. Here is the course outline.

Download: uml_introduction_course_outline.pdf

Have a UML course to teach at the end of next week.  Working on updating some of the slides.  Here are a few drafts of the updates.

• UML Course Intro.
• UML Course References
• UML Course Student Survey
• UML Tool Intro.
• UML Notation Intro
• UML Diagrams Intro

Have switched to Google Docs for most of my course materials.  That is working out pretty well.  Some slides from PowerPoint didn’t covert to Google Docs perfectly; some of the things I’m used to doing in PowerPoint can’t be done or are difficult in Google Docs.  However, overall Google Docs is working out pretty well. Main advantage is being able to work on the slides from anywhere - very convenient. I also like be able to create PDF versions to use in blog posts or send as email attachments… and being able to share my files froms Docs as read-only version.

I am again teaching a class this fall on UML.  Going thru some of my slides and updating the examples.  Here is the deck on Class Compartments.

Download: blawler-uml-02b-classescompartments.pdf (~85k)

Freddie Mac got lots of good press in the D.C. area during the late ’90s and just after 2000 for their efforts to re-skill their employees in new technology areas.  They were often featured both in the IT press and in the ‘places to work’ articles.

A distinctive part of the Freddie Mac case was their well-organized and well-developed skill development paths.  These not only invested in series of course for employees but used coordinated sets of training and work assignments to help employees develop new skills.  The company also used ‘boot camp’ skills development programs to help employees get immersed in new technologies and learn related skills needed for their new jobs.  Beyond the financial commitment, management was actively involved with project leaders assigned the responsiblity of delivering cohorts of re-trained employees as well as new functionality in new technologies.

I have some links saved on the Freddie Mac case study stored on del.icio.us - see http://delicious.com/brianlawler/FreddieMac

Wachovia is an oft-cited case study for enterprises moving to service oriented architecture (SOA).  Particularly during 2006 and 2007, the efforts of CIO Susan Certoma and Chief Architect Tony Bishop were frequently featured in industry articles and case studies. 

One of the distinctive aspects of this case study was the emphasis Certoma and Bishop put on recruiting and developing a cadre of experienced and skilled IT professionals within the enterprise as a key to the success of SOA adoption in the enterprise.

I have some links saved on the Wachovia SOA case study stored on del.icio.us - see http://delicious.com/brianlawler/soa+wachovia.

Updated my professional biography.  Nothing should be read into that as I’m very happy at the FFRDC.  Just a routine update and a bit overdue since my last copy was dated two promotions ago.

See http://blogs.jhu.edu/blawler/resume/

Here are some sample UML state diagrams. This is an incomplete diagram - i.e. it does not provide a workable state analysis and does not use all of the UML 2 state notation. However, it does include the basic notational elements (states, guard conditions, etc.).

Download Acrobat document (~75k)

Download PowerPoint document (~158k)

Download both documents as a Zip file.

To get started, I recommend as a first read “UML Distilled” (3rd edition, by Fowler). Chapter 10 gives a short but good introduction. Introduces the notation and a little bit about the technique. Does not really explain state analysis well-enough for someone who has never done this technique.

To really understand the topic, suggest a look at one or more of “Unified Modeling Language User Guide”(2nd edition, by Booch et al), the “UML Toolkit” book published by OMG, or Booch’s “Object Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications” (3rd edition, see my review). All of these are good. The UML User Guide is my personal favorite with regard to notation but Booch’s OOAD is better about aspects of the technique.

I have general reviews (not just about state diagrams and analysis) on Amazon.com - see here.

To get to some of the finer points, “Real-Time UML”by Douglas has some additional material.

For some background on OOAD or UML and state diagrams, you might read “Object-Oriented Analysis and Design” by Rumbaugh et al. There are also some interesting parts in Jacobson’s “Object Oriented Software Engineering”.However, be forewarned that neither uses UML. Still, there are some interesting ideas here and the leap from the notation they use to modern UML isn’t impossible.

A lot of modern UML state diagrams and the underlying techniques comes from David Harel’s work (see PDF). However, for most software development applications, the learning curve on that work might be prohibitively difficult.

Here is my blog at Johns Hopkins.  I’ve been using my blog on BlogSpot for a long time now but plan to post more of my school, academic, etc. materials here in the future.  We’ll see.

I also have a website at brianlawler.org. I put less and less of my content into traditional websites but this site is a jumping off point to the rest of my presence in the web universe.

Some of the other sites I use include brianlawler.smugmug.com for my photos and del.icio.us/brianlawler for my links.  For social networks, I mostly use Facebook for home/social stuff and LinkedIn for colleagues.

- Brian