Why invent an actor at all? I would have thought that making the use case
model clear would be much more important than appeasing a heuristic that
says use cases generally have actors.
How about the very simple sentence:
"This action happens at the end of the tax year."
When we start inventing actors to satisfy a rule of thumb, we commit
ourselves to doing it for everything. Think of the following triggers for
use cases that are not initiated by actors -- not naturally, anyway:
"Transformer switchover starts when the primary transfromer temperature
exceeds a threshold." (Electricity Distribution domain)
"Renewal reminders are sent six weeks before the current policy
expires." (Insurance domain)
"Correspondance queue is diverted to an alternative Filing Clerk when
the current Filing Clerk's queue has more than x pending emails." (Pick Your
Own domain) (Admittedly, this could become part of another use case.)
"Bank statements are sent monthly or when a statement runs to 25 pages
(the latter is due to the limitations of the enveloping machines. The limit
of 25 may be changed with the introduction of new machinery.)" (Banking
domain)
If we started inventing actors for all these triggers that are internal to
the system, we would soon be wading knee-deep in actors, without any
perceivable benefit.
Modeller beware.
Actors interact with your system. Triggers make use cases start. Timed
actions are Triggers.
Best regards,
Huseyin Angay
Karabash Ltd.
www.karabash.co.uk <http://www.karabash.co.uk>
-----Original Message-----
From: Eeles, Peter [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: 13 January 2002 10:50
To: 'Tomer Lev'; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: (ROSE) Periodic Internal Action - Use case specification answ
er
Hi Tomer,
Since use-cases are always initiated by an actor, then we need an actor! One
option is to introduce an actor such as a Timer. This is a common technique
for representing time-based actions.
Regards,
Pete
=====================================
Peter Eeles
Architecture and Technology Team Lead
Regional Services Organization (UK)
Rational Software
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mobile: +44 (0)7796 331061
=====================================
-----Original Message-----
From: Tomer Lev [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: 13 January 2002 07:32
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: (ROSE) Periodic Internal Action - Use case specification answer
Hi , A question for the Forum.
When describing a system with specifying Use cases, as we all do, what is
your favorite way to deal with Internal periodic actions that no actor
initiates (and some actor might-or might not- consume the action results
later).
There are many examples for such actions:
+ Periodic internal functioning tests.
+ Collection of received, but not yet handled, data/communication.
and so on.
your educated opinions are welcome.
Thanks
Tomer
Tomer Lev
SW Team Leader
Taldor-Tici Software Systems.
Voice: 972-8-9484876
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