软件开发方法学家Ivar Jacobson在本书中提出的OOSE（面向对象软件工程）方法是面向对象建模语言中***的方法之一，本书提出的Use Case分析方法在OO技术领域具有举足轻重的地位。
本书全面介绍了软件工程学科的概念和方法。本书分为三部分，**部分——简介，内容涵盖了软件工程学科的背景知识，共5章，包括系统开发简介，工业过程需求概述，系统生命周期，此外还介绍了面向对象概念以及如何将其应用到系统开发中。第二部分——概念，包括7章内容，第6章介绍了OOSE基础概念，并解释了为什么选择这些概念。接下的章节论述了分析和构建方法。接下来的两章论述了这些方法是如何被采纳到实时系统和数据库管理系统中的。第11章组件，介绍了什么是组件，如何将组件应用到开发过程。第12章介绍了测试。第三部分——应用，介绍了OOSE应用以及作为一种新的开发过程是如何被组织和管理的。本部分的*后论述了其他面向对象方法。本书附录介绍了对象技术的发展史。
本书荣获1992年度软件开发杂志效率大奖（Productivity Award），同时也是软件工程领域中享有盛誉的经典著作。本书是计算机及相关专业本科生和研究

Part I Introduction 1

1 System development as an industrial process 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 A useful analogy 2
1.3 System development characteristics 8
1.4 Summary 19

2 The system life cycle 21
2.1 Introduction 21
2.2 System development as a process of change 21
2.3 System development and reuse 26
2.4 System development and methodology 29
2.5 Objectory 38
2.6 Summary 40

3 What is object-orientation? 42
3.1 Introduction 42
3.2 Object 44
3.3 Class and instance 49
3.4 Polymorphism 55
3.5 Inheritance 56
3.6 Summary 68

4 Object-oriented system development 69
4.1 Introduction 69
4.2 Function/data methods 73
4.3 Object-oriented analysis 76
4.4 Object-oriented construction 79
4.5 Object-oriented testing 80
4.6 Summary 83

5 Object-oriented programming 84
5.1 Introduction 84
5.2 Objects 86
5.3 Classes and instances 87
5.4 Inheritance 93
5.5 Polymorphism 99
5.6 An example 102
5.7 Summary 105

Part II Concepts 107

6 Architecture 109
6.1 Introduction 109
6.2 System development is model building 113
6.3 Model architecture 125
6.4 Requirements model 126
6.5 Analysis model 130
6.6 The design model 143
6.7 The implementation model 149
6.8 Test model 150
6.9 Summary 151

7 Analysis 153
7.1 Introduction 153
7.2 The requirements model 156
7.3 The analysis model 174
7.4 Summary 199

8 Construction 201
8.1 Introduction 201
8.2 The design model 204
8.3 Block design 229
8.4 Working with construction 251
8.5 Summary 256

9 Real-time specialization 259
9.1 Introduction 259
9.2 Classification of real-time systems 259
9.3 Fundamental issues 260
9.4 Analysis 261
9.5 Testing and verification 263
9.6 Testing and verification 272
9.7 Summary 273

10 Database specialization 274
10.1 Introduction 274
10.2 Relational DBMS 276
10.3 Object DBMS 285
10.4 Discussion 287
10.5 Summary 288

11 Components 289
11.1 Introduction 289
11.2 What is a component? 294
11.3 Use of components 297
11.4 Component management 301
11.5 Summary 311

12 Testing 313
12.1 Introduction 313
12.2 On testing 315
12.3 Unit testing 323
12.4 Integration testing 330
12.5 System testing 333
12.6 The testing process 333
12.7 Summary 338

Part III Applications 341

13 Case study: warehouse management system 343
13.1 Introduction 343
13.2 ACME Warehouse Management Inc. 343
13.3 The requirements model 345
13.4 The analysis model 356
13.5 Construction 376

14 Case study: telecom 393
14.1 Introduction 393
14.2 Telecommunication switching systems 393
14.3 The requirements model 397
14.4 The analysis model 407
14.5 The design model 416
14.6 The implementation model 428

15 Managing object-oriented software engineering 436
15.1 Introduction 436
15.2 Project selection and preparation 436
15.3 Product development organization 445
15.4 Project organization and management 450
15.5 Project staffing 459
15.6 Software quality assurance 463
15.7 Software metrics 468
15.8 Summary 472

16 Other object-oriented methods 474
16.1 Introduction 474
16.2 A summary of object-oriented methods 476
16.3 Object-Oriented Analysis(OOA/Coad-Yourdon) 479
16.4 Object-Oriented Design(OOD/Booch) 484
16.5 Hierarchical Object-Oriented Design(HOOD) 487
16.6 Object Modeling Technique(OMT) 493
16.7 Responsibility-Driven Design 496
16.8 Summary 500

Appendix A On the development of Objectory 503
A.1 Introduction 503
A.2 Objectory as an activity 505
A.3 From idea to reality 515

References 518
Index 525