Use Cases for Business Analysis

Getting Started

• Introductions
• Course structure
• Course goals and objectives

Foundation Concepts

• Overview of use case modeling
• What is a use case model?
• The “how and why” of use cases
• When to perform use case modeling
• Where use cases fit into the solution life cycle
• Use cases in the problem domain
• Use cases in the solution domain
• Use case strengths and weaknesses
• Use case variations
• Use case driven development
• Use case lexicon
• Use cases
• Actors and roles
• Associations
• Goals
• Boundaries
• Use cases though the life cycle
• Use cases in the life cycle
• Managing requirements with use cases
• The life cycle is use case driven

Elicitation with Use Cases

• Overview of the basic mechanics and vocabulary of use cases
• Apply methods of use case elicitation to define the problem domain, or “as is” process
• Use case diagrams
• Why diagram?
• Partitioning the domain
• Use case diagramming guidelines
• How to employ use case diagrams in elicitation
• Guidelines for use case elicitation sessions
• Eliciting the problem domain
• Use case descriptions
• Use case generic description template
• Alternative templates
• Elements
• Pre and post conditions
• Main Success Scenario
• The conversation
• Alternate paths
• Exception paths
• Writing good use case descriptions
• Eliciting the detailed workflow with use case descriptions
• Additional information about use cases

Analyzing Requirements with Use Cases

• Use case analysis on existing requirements
• Confirming and validating requirements with use cases
• Confirming and validating information with use cases
• Defining the actors and use cases in a set of requirements
• Creating the scenarios
• Essential (requirements) use case
• Use case level of detail

Use Case Analysis Techniques

• Generalization and Specialization
• When to use generalization or specialization
• Generalization and specialization of actors
• Generalization and specialization of use cases
• Examples
• Associating generalizations
• Subtleties and guidelines
• Use Case Extensions
• The <> association
• The <> association
• Applying the extensions
• Incorporating extension points into use case descriptions
• Why use these extensions?
• Extensions or separate use cases
• Guidelines for extensions
• Applying use case extensions
• Patterns and anomalies
• o Redundant actors
• Linking hierarchies
• Granularity issues
• Non-user interface use cases
• Quality considerations
• Use case modeling errors to avoid
• Evaluating use case descriptions
• Use case quality checklist

Relationship between Use Cases and Business Requirements

• Creating a Requirements Specification from Use Cases
• Flowing the conversation into requirements
• Mapping to functional specifications
• Adding non-functional requirements
• Relating use cases to other artifacts
• Wire diagrams and user interface specifications
• Tying use cases to test cases and scenarios
• Project plans and project schedules

Relationship between Use Cases and Functional Specifications

• System use cases
• Reviewing business use cases
• Balancing use cases
• Use case realizations
• Expanding and explaining complexity
• Activity diagrams
• State Machine diagrams
• Sequence diagrams
• Activity Diagrams
• Applying what we know
• Extension points
• Use case chaining
• Identifying decision points

Use Case Good Practices

• The documentation trail for use cases
• Use case re-use
• Use case checklist

Summary

• What did we learn, and how can we implement this in our work environment?