This is another book in the Object Technology Series and another in a growing mountain of analysis and design books. For those interested in a methodology this book has some interesting ideas to contribute.

The book, at just under eight hundred pages, is divided into parts consisting of: Overview, Modelling with Objects, Factoring models and Design, Implementation by Assembly and How to apply Catalysis. In essence the book goes through the various design stages of business process modelling and design specification. It is clear, well laid- out and has plenty of diagrams. The content is certainly thought provoking and apparently 'Catalysis' has influenced the UML standard.

However, there are a number of useful and competing, methodologies that are out there - so what value is this one adding? The authors would argue that the separation of concerns into different layers and the development of reusable model frameworks allows a more flexible approach to development. That it combines a behaviour centric and data centric approach by describing the behaviour of a component in terms of attributes that relate to the clients' concerns rather than any implementation.

In short, there are some very useful ideas contained within this book and although it is not cheap it is in line with many other similar books. Therefore, for those looking for a methodology based around component development this is a good starting point. For those already using a methodology it has useful techniques that could addvalue.