More than anything, this book seems focused on selling books. The title includes patterns and object technology, both of which are very popular, but the book contains strangely little about either. One quickly learns that this is the first of two books, and there are continual references to essential material in the second. The 550 pages, with large type and wide margins, contain so much redundancy and verbose language that the book could easily have been condensed to 200 pages without loss of content.

Each book covers two of four phases: initiate, construct, deliver, and maintain and support. In this book, the five chapters of the initiation phase cover product definition and justification, while the five chapters of the construction phase cover modeling, programming, generalization, and developer testing. Overall, the chapter and section organization are good, but the content lacks technical depth and has a rambling, gestalt style that mixes thoughts from all phases. Advice and opinion are frequently given in the first person, and the author’s limited experience does not warrant the preaching.

The pages are interspersed with largely unexplained diagrams and a variety of sidebars entitled “Tips,” “Definitions,” “War Stories,” and “Scott’s Soapbox.” Many of the 15 war stories are interesting because they ring true. The oddest aspect of the book is the definitions. Groups of terms and definitions appear on every other page or so, and many of the same terms are listed repeatedly. The terms are rarely used as technical vocabulary, and in many instances they do not even appear in the adjoining text. As more filler, all of the definitions appear again in the 30-page glossary.

The book contains references to a number of well-known books on patterns and object-oriented design. One’s time would be better spent with those books or a standard software engineering textbook.