Use Cases Scenarios

User Story (US) vs. Use Cases (UC)

• US has shorter descriptions, 
• US are more general (less detailed) than UC
• US focus on Who & Why, UC focus on User flow and their interaction with the systems (e.g. actor-initiated or system-initiated)
• US has no technical detail, while UC is technical

Definition: Use Case is a sequence of actions a system that yields an observable result of value to the particular actor

• From actors' perspective -- same group of people in the use case diagram
• Scenario: the sequence of actions that required in each use case
• Appropriate for situations (e.g. off-shore teams) in which implementation details are needed
• Complicated, time-consuming to produce, hard to maintian

Relationship with other artifacts

• 1:1:1 -- Event table activities --> Use Cases in UC Diagram --> Detailed Use Case Senarios
• Event table Source & Destination --> Actors in UC Diagram 

Componenents

• <Use Case Name>
• <Summary> -- description of the use case
• <Actor> -- an external person or external system triggering the use case
• <Input Data> -- similar to inflow data in data flow diagram
• <Output Data> -- similar to outflow data in data flow diagram
• <Basic Flow> -- the "happy path" -- only one, error-free, executed 80% of the time -- good 1st MVP
• <Alt. Flow> -- the "exception path" -- all error cases, unpredicatable, executed 1 out of 10 times
• <Invariant> -- stay true throughout the use case
• <Pre-condition> -- the state of the system before the use case initiated
• <Post-condition> -- the state of the system after the use case initiated
• <Extention Points> -- includes and extends in the use case diagram
• <Business Rules>

Basic Flow

Always create the flow from a business perspective

Consider the business function you want to accomplish

Avoid implementation specific details

In the form of stimulus response: Actor --> System --> Actor --> System ...

Example

Alt. Flow

Supported & defined by business rules

Example 1

• Business rule: >= 21 yrs old to rent a car
• Happy path: I am >= 21 yrs old, I get a rental
• Alt. path: I am 20, get a sessage that I cannot get the rental

Example 2 

Subflow

Definition: Sometimes a Use Case has several distinct cases

• Each case is distinct and separate from the others
• No hierarchical relationship between the cases
• Describe the Use Case with Subflows—one for each case

Example

4. The system executes one and only one of the following subflows:

a.  If the clerk selected “Add a Product”, the Add a Product subflow is executed

b.  If the clerk selected “Change a Product”, the Change a Product subflow is executed

c.  If the clerk selected “Delete a Product”, the Delete a Product subflow is executed

 

Business Rules

• Come from company policy
• Dictate how buiness is conducted
• Included to support Alt. flow

Example

Precondition

Invariants

• Use Case: Make Payment 
• Invariant: Actor stays authorized