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.
Lists / Requirements / Requirements Models / Use Cases
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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.
Requirements / Requirements Models / Use Cases
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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.
Interaction design / Requirements / Requirements Models / Use Cases
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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.
Agile / Requirements Models / Use Cases
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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.
Requirements / Requirements Models / Use Cases
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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.
Design / Interaction design / Prioritization / Requirements / Software development / Software requirements specification / UX
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Fifteen Ways to Shut Down
There are 15 ways for someone to shutdown a laptop running Windows Vista. This adds unwarranted complexity to our software. How can we avoid the same problem in our software?
Business Analysis / Communication / Requirements / Software requirements specification / Writing
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Another Use For ‘Why?’
“Why?” The question is our inspiration and our muse. “Why?” is the justification for our requirements. The key to identifying “What?” and “When?”, which lead to “How?” and “How Much?” But there is another use for “Why?” – communication of intent (with stakeholders and implementers). Requirements documents are artifacts, but they are also dynamic documents. By documenting “Why?” a requirement is a requirement, we make it easier for future readers to understand.
Communication / Design / Interaction design / Requirements Models / Use Cases / UX / Writing
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Use Case Driven Documentation
Yesterday we wrote about focusing our documentation on what our users are trying to accomplish. With a structured requirements approach, or with an interaction-design driven approach, we’ve already solved half the problem – determining what to document.