Use Cases for Business Analysis - Making Sure that the Business Problem is Solved

• Analysts and information gatherers who need an efficient way of modeling the interfaces/processes that involve users and systems
• Business analysts who need to define the business problem, business solution, or business requirements
• IT managers who need to understand the impact of complex business processes especially involving multiple systems
• Software developers who are using a Unified Modeling Language (UML) to model and diagram their implementations
• Business managers and users who want to better understand the processes they are working in, and the solutions and improvements that are being implemented

• Employing use cases as an elicitation template to gather more information about the problem domain
• Applying use cases to the analysis of the business problem and current processes to identify improvements and solutions
• Translating use cases into business and functional requirements

You’ll learn how to:

• Apply the use case method to define the problem domain and discover the conditions that need improvement in a business process
• Employ use cases in the analysis of requirements and information to create a solution to the business problem
• Translate use cases into requirements

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 and other techniques
• Prototyping
• Storyboarding
• Scenarios
• The development life cycle

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

• Applying use case analysis to 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 <<extend>> association
• The <<include>> 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
• 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

The Relationship of Use Cases and Business Requirements

• Creating a Requirements Specification from Use Cases
• Flowing the conversation into requirements
• Mapping to functional specifications
• Adding non-functional specifications
• 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

The Relationship of Use Cases and Functional Specifications

• System use case
• Reviewing business use cases
• Balancing use cases
• Use case realizations
• Expanding and explaining complexity
• Activity diagrams
• State Machine diagrams
• Sequence 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?