Here are some notes on Use Cases that hopefully will help:
************************************************************************* For information on Use Cases in general see, On-line help, use case Check out the RUP on line (free 20 day eval): http://www.rational.com/products/rup/index.jtmpl Guidelines: Business Use Case Activity: Find Business Actors and Use Cases (search on "Businees Use Case" for other related links) http://www.therationaledge.com/admin/archives.jsp - Features, Use Cases, Requirements, Oh My! - Why Use Cases Are Not "Functions" - From Use Cases to Role-Based Security Components - What Makes a Good Use-Case Name? - Managing Use-Case Details - Clarity and Precision: Two Approaches to Better Use-Case Descriptions. An Introduction. - Using Use Cases to Create Test Cases - Applying Use-Case Driven Object Modeling with UML: An Annotated E-Commerce Example - Dear Dr. Use Case: What About "Shall" Wording in a Use Case? - From Use Cases to Components - Optimizing Rose 98 to Support Use Case Driven Object Modeling - Use Case Management http://www.rational.com/uml/resources/documentation/index.jsp UML v. 1.3 specification Use case diagrams Semantics Notation Mapping ... http://isds.bus.lsu.edu/cvoc/learn/bpr/cprojects/Spring1998/modeling/usecase .html Use Case Diagrams A brief tutorial and example are given for viewers to understand use case scenarios. http://www.sdmagazine.com/articles/2000/0001/0001d/0001d.htm a good article on Use Case pitfalls http://members.aol.com/acockburn/papers/usecases.htm Structuring Use Cases with Goals http://www.cetus-links.org/ 18,558 Links on Objects & Components Search on "Use Case" 61 matches (last time I looked) ... Use Case Fundamentals (Alistair Cockburn) Use Case Modelling (Edward Kenworthy) Use Case Rules of Thumb: Guidelines and lessons learned (Fusion Newsletter) ... etc. NOTE: Unfortunately the following web site, www.usecasehelp.com, is apparently no longer in operation, but you can use a good search engine to locate most of the white papers mentioned below at other sites (most of these can also be found at Cetus link above): http://www.usecasehelp.com/wp/white_papers.htm WHITE PAPERS Title Author Date Published Business Process Modeling with UML Craig Dewalt Dec 99 Use and Abuse Cases Martin Fowler April 98 Literate Modeling - Capturing Business Knowledge with UML Jim Arlow, John Quinn 1998 The Four Levels of Use Case Description B. Paech 1998 Practical Guide to Use Case Modeling Edward Kenworthy 1997 Integrating Business Processes, Workflows, and Object Models via Use Cases Proformacorp June 99 OOSC2: The Use Case Principle Bertrand Meyer June 98 Integrating User Interface Design and Object-Oriented Development Through Task Analysis and Use Cases John Artin 1997 The Roles of Use Case in Analysis Daniel A. Rawsthorne 1998 The Three R's of Use Case Formalisms: Realization, Refinement, and Reification Russle R. Hurlburt 1997 Use Case Fundamentals Alistair Cockburn 1999 Structuring Use Cases with Goals Alistair Cockburn 1995 Basic Use Case Template Alistair Cockburn 1995 Use Case Dialogs Alistair Cockburn 1998 Conditional Interaction: Improvements to Use Case Notation Larry Constantine 1999 The Misuse of Use Cases (Managing Requirements) Timothy Korson 1998 Configuring A Use Case Process (Managing Requirements Part 2) Timoth Korson 1998 Use Case Modelling Edward Kenworthy 1997 Use Cases and Analysis Documentation Mark Roberts 1998 Why are Use Cases so painful? Gary K. Evans 1998 The Key Event Dictionary bring precision to use cases Becky Winant 1996 The Requirements/Service/Interface (RSI) Approach to Use Case Analysis Mark Collins-Cope 1999 System Engineering with UML Roland Parviainen 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - You should read Terry Quatrani's book "Visual Modeling with Rational Rose and UML". Chapter 3 discusses the creation of Use Cases and deals with your question. Here is an excerpt (paraphrased): What constitutes a good Use Case? ... One problem that I have encountered is the level of detail found in Use Cases. That is, how big (or how little) should they be? There is no one, right answer. The rule of thumb that I apply is: A Use Case typically represents a major piece of functionality that is complete from beginning to end. A Use Case must deliver something of value to an actor. As far as rules used for creating Use Cases, none are provided. However a list of guidelines is presented. Here is another excerpt (paraphrased): The following questions may be used to help identify the Use Cases for a system: - What are the tasks of each actor? - Will any actor create, store, change, remove, or read information in the system? - What Use Cases will create, store, change, remove, or read this information? - Will any actor need to inform the system about sudden, external changes? - Does any actor need to be informed about certain occurrences in the system? - What Use Cases will support and maintain the system? - Can all functional requirements be performed by the Use Cases? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - There are guidelines for writing a good use case which you can find in Alistair Cockburn's book "Writing Effective Use Cases". Use cases are not precise, however, so they cannot be inherently well-formed. If you've been following the discussions about use cases and formal specifications on this list then you'll note that some of us advocate having a precise specification of system behaviour written in a language like OCL as well as an informal description for customers. If you're new to UML then I thoroughly recommend Cockburn's book as an initial guideline. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Take a look at "Applying Use Cases: A Practical Guide" by Geri Schneider and Jason P. Winters. This is a relatively small book (188 pgs. total) but describes how to come up with Use Cases very good. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Others have already responded with sources providing rules for good use cases. On the flip side, you may find the following article by Susan Lilly on avoiding common pitfalls in writing use cases helpful: http://www.sdmagazine.com/articles/2000/0001/0001d/0001d.htm?topic=uml ************************************************************************* Patrick Kennedy Rational Support -----Original Message----- From: Rakesh Peter [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, August 12, 2002 12:56 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: (ROSE) Re: Rational Rose and use cases books Can any of you point me to some good books on using Rational Rose with use cases. Thanks. Rakesh _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ************************************************************************ * Rose Forum is a public venue for ideas and discussions. * For technical support, visit http://www.rational.com/support * * Post or Reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Subscription Requests: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Archive of messages: * http://www.rational.com/support/usergroups/rose/rose_forum.jsp * Other Requests: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To unsubscribe from the list, please send email * To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Subject: <BLANK> * Body: unsubscribe rose_forum ************************************************************************* ************************************************************************ * Rose Forum is a public venue for ideas and discussions. * For technical support, visit http://www.rational.com/support * * Post or Reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Subscription Requests: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Archive of messages: * http://www.rational.com/support/usergroups/rose/rose_forum.jsp * Other Requests: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To unsubscribe from the list, please send email * To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Subject: <BLANK> * Body: unsubscribe rose_forum *************************************************************************
