Applying Use Cases: A Practical Guide [Paperback]

Use cases are an integral part of UML and RUP so enterprise-level programmers need to know them. They are most useful in the planning stages of large projects to provide a sanity check and a framework. The authors demonstrate the use case process with a hypothetical project to develop a new mail order company. Somewhat twee "discussions" between the fictional developers humanise the subject and provide an unusual degree of narrative tension for such an academic work.

About two thirds of the book is concerned with teaching you how use case is employed. It covers documentation, diagramming, levels of detail and the review process. There's also discussion on splitting large projects and construction/delivery of the system. In the appendices you'll find resources--books and Web sites--documentation templates, UML notation and the order processing system itself taken as far as designing graphic interfaces.

All in all, a thoroughly readable, hands on, introduction to an important and useful project design tool. --Steve Patient

The #1 beginners guide to use cases, now fully updated, and better than ever!
More practical examples including solutions for common use case pitfalls.
Identifying system boundaries, creating scenarios, diagramming and reviewing use cases, building project plans, and more.
Completely updated to reflect UML 1.3 and RUP 2000. Use cases allow software developers to identify exactly what features will be required by every user of a software system, and describe these features in terms that allow for rapid, cost-effective, successful development. Applying Use Cases is the most practical, simple, and gentle introduction to use cases. This edition is even better, with more real-world examples, more insight into the pitfalls of use case development, and thorough updating for UML 1.3 and RUP 2000. Leading mentors and consultants Geri Schneider and Jason Winters cover every phase of the process, in the context of a start-to-finish, realistic case study. Learn how to identify both primary and secondary scenarios for the usage of a proposed system; how to diagram use cases; and how to architect and organize large systems, define interfaces between components, and document your use cases.
Geri Schneider works at Andrews Technologies, where she consults, researches, and trains software engineers in the areas of object-oriented process, management, analysis and design, patterns, and use cases. In addition, she teaches in the software engineering management certificate program for the University of California Santa Cruz Extension. Formerly, she worked for Rational Software Corporation in the areas of iterative development processes and use case analysis. Jason P. Winters has been a staff engineer at Lucent Technologies since 1990, consulting within the company on object-oriented design, process, and use cases.