I'm in the middle of the first largish-scale OOD project I've done. I'm a newbie to formalized design (UML et al) so I'm fascinated (and sometimes frustrated!) at the process.

I have a definite feeling that the process is more important to UML's inventors than the end result, but that impression may change as we get into implementation. Hard to predict the benefit this process will bring to the end product – but I mark that up to inexperience.