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The ACCU passes on review copies of computer books to its members for them to review. The result is a large, high quality collection of book reviews by programmers, for programmers. Currently there are 1949 reviews in the database and more every month.
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Title:
The OPEN Process Specification
Author:
Ian Graham et al.
ISBN:
0 201 33133 0
Publisher:
Addison-Wesley
Pages:
314pp
Price:
£24-95
Reviewer:
Joe Wood
Subject:
object oriented; modelling languages
Appeared in:
11-2
This book describes the OPEN (Object-oriented Process, Environment and Notation) development process. The intention of OPEN is to provide a third generation, industrial strength development method for object-oriented projects. OPEN will be seen as a potential rival to UML, however in principle one could use the UML notation in a project managed by the OPEN process.

Sadly, I found this book most unsatisfactory. I say 'sadly' because I believe that we need some good books describing how to successfully manage OO projects, but this book is not one of them.

The book is divided into two major parts, the first providing an overview of the OPEN process and the second providing a reference manual for the various phrases of a software project.

I think the test for a book of this nature, has to be the question 'Would I feel happy running a project based on this book?' To which I am forced to answer NO; because there is insufficient information in the book and I am still left wondering what makes OPEN different from UML (say).

If you want another perspective on running an OO project and you can borrow a copy then feel free to have a look, but frankly I would not recommend buying a copy nor even making a mad rush to the library.