Developers who effectively employ use cases deliver better applications--on time and under budget. The concept behind use cases is perhaps as old as software itself; they express the behavior of systems in terms of how users will ultimately interact with them. Despite this inherent simplicity, the use case approach is frequently misapplied, resulting in functional requirements that are confusing, cumbersome, or redundant.
In Use Case Modeling, experienced use case practitioners Kurt Bittner and Ian Spence share their tips and tricks for applying use cases in various environments. They delve into all aspects of use case modeling and management, demonstrating how development teams can capitalize on the approach's simplicity when modeling complex systems.
In this ready reference, readers will discover how to
- Introduce a development team to use cases and implement a use case approach
- Identify the key elements of a use case model, including actors; and the components of a use case, including basic flow, preconditions, post-conditions, sub-flows, and alternate flows
- Master the objectives and challenges of creating detailed descriptions of use cases
- Improve their descriptions' readability and consistency
- Prevent and remedy common problems arising from the misuse of include, extend, and generalization use case relationships.
- Organize and conduct a review of a use case model to realize the best possible approach
The book draws extensively on best practices developed at Rational Software Corporation, and presents real-life examples to illustrate the considerable power of use case modeling. As such, Use Case Modeling is sure to give development teams the tools they need to translate vision and creativity into systems that satisfy the most rigorous user demands.
About the Author
The director for Requirements Management Solutions at Rational Software, Kurt Bittner served on the original Rational Unified Process development team. He has twenty years of experience in software development, including work in requirements capture, analysis, design, development, and project and product management.
A senior consultant at Rational Software, Ian Spence specializes in the adoption of the Rational Unified Process and the use case driven approach that it recommends. He has over eighteen years of experience in the software industry, covering the complete development lifecycle, including requirements capture, architecture, analysis, design, implementation, and project management.
