Book excerpt: Project-Based Software Engineering is the first book to provide hands-on process and practice in software engineering essentials for the beginner. The book presents steps through the software development life cycle and two running case studies that develop as the steps are presented. Running parallel to the process presentation and case studies, the book supports a semester-long software development project. This book focuses on object-oriented software development, and supports the conceptualization, analysis, design and implementation of an object-oriented project. It is mostly language-independent, with necessary code examples in Java. A subset of UML is used, with the notation explained as needed to support the readers' work. Two running case studies a video game and a library check out system show the development of a software project. Both have sample deliverables and thus provide the reader with examples of the type of work readers are to create. This book is appropriate for readers looking to gain experience in project analysis, design implementation, and testing.