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Effective Use Case Development 

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Please contact Deep Creek Center for information on scheduling a course.
Course Length
 4 days
Credits Earned
 28 PDU credits
This class presents an up-to-date, practical guide to use case writing. The class expands on the classic treatment of use cases to provide software developers with a "nuts-and-bolts" tutorial for writing. The course thoroughly covers introductory, intermediate, and advanced concepts in use case development. During the class the instructor will use examples of both good and bad use cases to reinforce the student’s learning.

What You Will Accomplish

At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  • Understand the key elements of use cases
  • Understand stakeholders, design scope and scenarios
  • Develop a use case style guide with action steps and suggested formats
  • Use an extensive list of time-saving use case writing tips
  • Develop a helpful presentation of use case templates
  • Develop a proven methodology for taking advantage of use cases

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for analysts, software engineers, application experts, and technical project managers.

Course Outline

I. Introduction
  • What is a use case?
  • Requirements and use cases
  • Use Cases as project-linking structure
  • When use cases add value
  • Manage your energy
II. The Use Case as a Contract for Behavior
  • Interactions between actors with goals
  • Contract between stakeholders with interests
  • The graphical model
III. Scope
  • Functional scope
  • Design scope
  • The outermost use cases
  • Using the scope-defining work products
IV. Stakeholders
  • The primary actor
  • Supporting actors
  • The system under discussion
  • Internal actors and white-box use cases
V. Three Named Goal Levels
  • User goals (blue, sea-level)
  • Summary level (white, cloud/ kite)
  • Subfunctions (indigo/black, underwater/clam)
  • Using graphical icons to highlight goal levels
  • Finding the right goal level
  • A longer writing sample: "handle a claim" at several levels
VI. Preconditions, Triggers, and Guarantees
  • Preconditions
  • Minimal guarantees
  • Success guarantee
  • Triggers
VII. Scenarios and Steps
  • The main success scenario
  • Action steps
VIII. Extensions
  • Extension basics
  • The extension conditions
  • Extension handling
IX. Linking Use Cases
  • Sub use cases
  • Extension use cases
X. Formats to Choose From
  • Forces affecting use case writing styles
  • Standards for five project types
  • Conclusion
XI. On Being Done
XII. Scaling Up to Many Use Cases
  • Say less about each one (low-precision representation)
  • Create clusters of use cases
XIII. CRUD and Parameterized Use Cases
  • CRUD use cases
  • Parameterized use cases
XIV. Business Process Modeling
  • Modeling versus designing
  • Linking business and system use cases
XV. The Missing Requirements
  • Precision in data requirements
  • Cross-linking from use cases to other requirements
XVI. Use Cases in the Overall Process
  • Use cases in project organization
  • Use cases to task or feature lists
  • Use cases to design
  • Use cases to UI design
  • Use cases to test cases
  • The actual writing
XVII. Mistakes Fixed
  • No system
  • No primary actor
  • Too many user interface details
  • Very low goal levels
  • Purpose and content not aligned
  • Advanced example of too much UI


Please contact Deep Creek Center for information.
It is only a solution if it produces the desired results.