【UML001】Business Use-Case VS System Use-Case

Business Use-Case

A Business Use-Case is a way in which a customer or some other interested party can make use of the business to get the result they want whether it’s to buy an item, to get a new driving licence, to pay an invoice, or whatever. An important point is that a single execution of a Business Use-Case should encompass all the activities necessary to do what the customer (or other actor) wants, and also any activities that the business needs to do before the process is complete from its point of view.

System Use-Case

In contrast, a System Use-Case is a way in which a user of a computer system can make use of the system to get the result they want. This will typically be something we can readily imagine as being done in a single sitting on a single PC or other device such as an ATM or a mobile/cell phone, usually with a single UI, or a small number of closely-related screens such as a wizard, and taking maybe between a couple of minutes and a half-hour at most.

The Key Difference

When faced with a particular modelling task I a real-life project, these differences helps us to decide: “Which one am I modelling here?”

Use cases are the values provided to the actors by the systems or organizations under study. For organizations, named business use case; For systems, named system use case. See the picture below (drawn by myself):