[andrewcooke]

just want to second uml distilled. if you need to use uml you should read it - it's very slim and very practical. http://martinfowler.com/books/uml.html

also, uml with a tool like enterprise architect (which is basically a set of gui interfaces onto a database, where you construct a design in the database using the views, and are forced to be consistent) is very different from sketching a few diagrams.

it's not for me, but with a good tool you can see the attraction in certain scenarios.