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Subject:Re: use cases - what are they good for From:John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 11 Jan 2005 08:06:00 -0800 (PST)
> Does anyone use 'use cases' to develop / write procedures? I've
> been investigating this topic, and it seems that use cases are very
I don't know if you are talking about the strict UML Use cases, or
use cases in the generic sense.
My expereince with use cases is that you don't include use cases in
your documentation. Instead, they are used to idendify what and how
you should write that documentation.
In other words...you identify a user and develop a set of use cases.
This set incompasses everything they do for their job. Each use case
is a discreet goal. Include all of, but only the steps and processes
that they need to do this.
Examples:
- User needs to create user profile.
- User needs to update user profile.
- User needs to delete user profile.
Once you have everything they do accounted for, you create your
documentation and after you are done, your documentation will have
addressed everything they do.
> I'd like to know anyone's experience with use cases. Are they
> perhaps suited to IT only?
No...they are suitable for anything that requires documenting
something that someone does.
=====
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
?Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone
amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built
the Titanic.? - Dave Barry
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