>From the people who created UML: Jabcobson, Booch and Rumbaugh's "The
Unified Software Development Process" 1999 Addison-Wesley, page 159:
"
Sometimes however, as in complex real-time systems, the use cases may be so
complex that it becomes necessary to use a more structured description
technique. The interaction between the actors and the use cases may, for
example, go through so many states and alternative transitions that it is
almost impossible to keep a textual use-case description consistent. It may
then be useful to use a visual modeling technique to describe the use cases.
Such techniques can help the system analyst to better understand the use
cases:
* UML statechart diagrams can be used to describe the states of the
use case and the transitions between those states; see Figure 7. 16.
* Activity diagrams can be used to describe the transitions between
states in more detail as sequence of actions. Activity diagrams can be
described as a generalized form of SDL state transition diagrams [15], which
is a well-proven technique used in telecommunications.
* Interaction diagrams can be used to describe how an instance of a
use case interacts with an instance of an actor. The interaction diagram
then shows the
use case and the participating actor (or actors).
"
In honesty, although I have seen many examples of activity and interaction
(sequence/collaboration) diagrams used to expose the dynamic aspects of use
case workflow, I have never seen an example of a statechart diagram used for
this. Also, its possible that there's been a change between the time this
was written (1999) and present OMG UML spec (version 1.3) usage and
conventions regarding statechart diagrams.
Rusty
------------------------------------------------------------
Rusty Williamson
> Sr. Systems Architect
GERS Retail Systems
http://www.gers.com/
The Object Workshop
http://home.san.rr.com/williamson/
Home Page
http://www.znet.com/~rusty/
------------------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Dos Santos Mark E LTJG DLVA [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2000 5:55 AM
To: 'Williamson, Rusty'
Subject: RE: (ROSE) Use Case Activity Diagram Location...
Actually, by definition, each sequence diagram represents one path through a
use case, or scenario. State diagrams do not represent the dynamic aspect
of use cases, but rather the dynamic aspect of a class.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Williamson, Rusty [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, November 20, 2000 8:10 PM
> To: 'Rose Forum'
> Subject: (ROSE) Use Case Activity Diagram Location...
>
>
>
> Hello,
>
> We recently took the Rational OOA&D class which was very
> good, however, it
> did leave one point of confusion regarding secondary diagrams
> (activity,
> sequence and statechart diagrams) for use cases. These
> diagrams show the
> dynamic aspects of use cases (basically more detail regarding
> the primary
> and secondary scenarios found in the written use case) -- in
> other words
> they show an external view of 'what' the system does and
> would seem to me to
> be part of the use-case model. In fact the course material
> indicates that
> they are part of the use-case model and, the course CD
> contains an example
> which also shows these diagrams as part of the use-case
> model. On top of
> this, in Rose, if you right click on a use case, it offers
> the option to
> create these and, if you take this option, it also places
> them within the
> use-case model under the related use case.
>
> However (and here's the point of confusion), several students
> asked the
> instructor where these diagrams belonged and she specifically
> told them that
> 'now' the convention was to place these diagrams in the
> Logical View under
> the use case realizations.
>
> Does anyone know anything about this? Are we mistaken, or
> does Rational now
> say to place these diagrams with the use case realizations in
> the Logical
> View?
>
> Thanks!
> Rusty
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Rusty Williamson
> > Sr. Systems Architect
> GERS Retail Systems
> http://www.gers.com/
> The Object Workshop
> http://home.san.rr.com/williamson/
> Home Page
> http://www.znet.com/~rusty/
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
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