Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction.
• 2. The Use Case as a Contract for Behavior.
• 3. Scope.
• 4. Stakeholders and Actors.
• 5. Three Named Goal Levels.
• 6. Preconditions, Triggers, and Guarantees.
• 7. Scenarios and Steps.
• 8. Extensions.
• 9. Technology and Data Variations.
• 10. Linking Use Cases.
• 11. Use Case Formats.
• 12. When Are We Done.
• 13. Scaling Up to Many Use Cases.
• 14. CRUD and Parameterized Use Cases.
• 15. Business Process Modeling.
• 16. The Missing Requirements.
• 17. Use Cases in the Overall Process.
• 18. Use Case Briefs and Extreme Programming.
• 19. Mistakes Fixed.
• 20. Reminders for Each Use Case.
• 21. Reminders for the Use Case Set.
• 22. Reminders for Working on the Use Cases.
• Appendix A. Use Cases in UML.
• Appendix B. Answers to (Some) Exercises.
• Appendix C: Glossary.
• Appendix D: Readings

Promotional Information

Use cases have never been this easy to understand -- or this easy to create! In Writing Effective Use Cases, Alistair Cockburn offers a hands-on, soup-to-nuts guide to use case development, based on the proven concepts he has refined through years of research, development, and seminar presentations. Cockburn begins by answering the most basic questions facing anyone interested in use cases: "What does a use case look like? When do I write one?" Next, he introduces each key element of use cases: actors, stakeholders, design scope, goal levels, scenarios, and more. Writing Effective Use Cases contains detailed guidelines, formats, and project standards for creating use cases -- as well as a detailed chapter on style, containing specific do's and don'ts. Cockburn shows how use cases fit together with requirements gathering, business processing reengineering, and other key issues facing software professionals. The book includes practice exercises with solutions, as well as a detailed appendix on how to use these techniques with UML. For all application developers, object technology practitioners, software system designers, architects, and analysts.

About the Author

Alistair Cockburn is a recognized expert on use cases. He is consulting fellow at Humans and Technology, where he is responsible for helping clients succeed with object-oriented projects. He has more than twenty years of experience leading projects in hardware and software development in insurance, retail, and e-commerce companies and in large organizations such as the Central Bank of Norway and IBM.