Category Archives: Use Cases

Use cases are the most common requirements model. They are used to define what users do with the product, in order to achieve their goals. There are multiple formats for use cases – we discuss them here.

Software Cost Estimation With Use Case Points – Actor Analysis

Software project cost estimation using use case points takes the approach of estimating the amount of effort based upon what the software is being asked to do – not an analysis of how someone chooses to do it. We’ve looked at technical and environmental factors that influence our estimate. And we’ve done a use case analysis to quantify how much work the software is being asked to do. The last area of analysis focuses on the users of the software.

Software Cost Estimation With Use Case Points – Use Case Analysis

Software cost estimation with use case points is primarily driven by use case analysis. You take into account environmental and technical factors, but they are ultimately only modifiers of the analysis done on the use cases. Each use case contributes to the project cost estimate, and use cases of varying complexity have a varying influence on the cost estimate.

Software Cost Estimation With Use Case Points – Environmental Factors

The environmental factors that describe your development team and environment are the second thing you assess when doing project cost estimation with use case points. Environmental factors primarily focus on the capabilities of your team, but also touch on your process.

Software Cost Estimation With Use Case Points – Technical Factors

The technical factors are the first thing you assess when doing a use case point analysis. Technical factors describe the expectations of the users for the delivered software. Generally, it is an assessment of non-functional requirements. There are 13 technical factors that you have to analyze. Read on to see how.

Software Cost Estimation With Use Case Points – Introduction

Estimating the amount of work required to deliver software is hard. Estimating the amount of work in the very early stages of a project is even harder. A method was developed to estimate the amount of work required by analyzing what the system will allow its users to do. That method is called Estimating With Use Case Points. This article is an introduction to the concept.

How to Write Good Use Case Names – 7 Tips

The first step in writing the use cases for a project is to define the scope of the project. One way to do that is to list the use case names that define all of the user goals that are in scope. To do that, you need to know how to write good use case names. Good use case names also serve as a great reference and provide context and understanding throughout the life of the project. We present our tips for writing good use case names.

Informal Use Case Template

Free Microsoft Word 2003 template for creating informal use cases. This template is built as a form with guiding text and help text. Read how to use it and download it today.

Actor Hierarchies And Then Some

Actor Hierarchies give us an overview of the people who will interact with the system. We can extend this model to provide a visual indication of how use cases are distributed through the organization. Further, we can leverage a hierarchy to show how use cases are rolled out to the users – a targeted communication for our stakeholders.

Incremental Delivery and Evolving Use Cases

Amazon.com started by selling books. Their initial use case was “Sell books online.” The vision was always “Sell everything” – hence the name. But they started with a simple use case and evolved it.

Subordinate and Superordinate Use Cases

Use Cases can be built up by combining other use cases. When a use case is made up of other use cases, the component use cases are known as subordinate use cases. The “parent” use case is referred to as the superordinate use case. This is known as composition. See an example of how composition works for use cases.