Without proper capture of requirements software projects have a high probability of failure. This 2-day course was written by Alistair Cockburn, the world’s leader in use case specification, and is offered by Gary K. Evans of Evanetics as a member of Cockburn and Associates (www.cockburnandassociates.com). Based on Cockburn’s award-winning book, Writing Effective Use Cases, this course focuses exclusively on Cockburn’s approach for writing useful and effective use cases for any type of software project.

This course is based on continuous group exercises and discussions, rather than a slide-based lecture form. In each section of the course the instructor introduces the exercise topic, the student groups do an exercise and evaluate their results, then the instructor leads the entire room in discussion about the exercise and their results. This structure assures each person participates in both exercises and discussions.

The first day covers defining system scope, identifying actors, the 5 use case goal levels, usage narratives, writing use case action steps, and types of scenarios. The second day covers failure discovery, failure handling, and integrating use cases of different goal levels within a single project.  

At the end of the course, the student will be able to:

• Write effective use cases for describing the desired behavior of a software system.

• Describe the iterative process for developing use cases.

• Describe the degree of precision needed to write useful and effective use cases.

• Recognize improper use case descriptions.

• Understand how to apply use cases directly to software testing.

Duration

Two days. A third or fourth day can be elected in which the instructor facilitates the students in applying what they learned in the first two days to writing use cases for one or more of their company projects. At the end of these workshop sessions the students will have use cases for their current or future project.

Prerequisites

Experience in requirements gathering, or systems analysis is desirable, but not mandatory.

Cost

Please call 803-781-7628 for public enrollment and private, on-site pricing.

Topics

Introduction To The Course –  Goals of The Course –  Opening Discussions -  Review Use Case Examples A Quick Pass Through The Entire Use Case Writing Process –  A "Process Miniature" Of Use Case Writing     - Define Design Scope     - List Summary & Sea-level Use Cases     - List Primary Actors & Business Events     - Prioritizing Use Cases for a Release Plan     - For Each Use Case        - Identify Stakeholders & Interest        - Write Main Success Scenario        - Identify What Could Go Wrong        - Write Behavior for Exceptions Use Cases - What They Are And Are Not –  Managing Energy By Shifting Precision –  Requirements And Development Process --     Where Do Use Cases Fit?     - Use Cases Capture Behavioral Requirements     - Use Cases and Business, Functional, and        Non-Functional Requirements

Concepts Needed To Do Effective Use Cases –  Scope (Where Do I Put My System Boundaries?) –  Actors & Stakeholders –  Use Case Goal Levels     - Summary Level Goals     - User Level Goals     - Subfunctions     - Traversing the Goal Level Hierarchy –  Action Steps     - How Use Case Statements Should Be Written Applying the Process Name All Use Cases Stakeholders & Their Interests Write The Main Success Scenario -  Mid-Term Exam On Scenario Writing Identify Extension Conditions Reduce Extension Conditions Scope And Goal Levels Write Extension Handling Action Steps Wrap Up & Reflection