Re: use cases - what are they good for

["Michael Collier" <mcollier -at- maryland -dot- com>]

> I'd like to know anyone's experience with use cases. Are they perhaps
> suited to IT only?

For writing procedures, I have found their usefulness to range from
somewhat useful to not all that useful. They are written to ensure that
system designers understand what the customers and their users need to be
able to do with the system so that the project moves forward from a shared
understanding of the problem. Thus they are mainly a tool for software
developers, business analysts and system analysts.

It's important to note that many uses cases are "system" use cases, which
describe interactions between the system and other systems or information
processes, not necessarily people. In one version of use case terminology,
the term "actor" is used to identify something interacting with the
system, which could be a person, or it could be another process. If you
can identify "people"-oriented use cases, you may find those to be more
helpful.

Like other software project documents, they can help the tech writer
understand the system and what users need to do with it, but since large
projects can generate hundreds or even thousands of use cases, there might
be a lot of them to wade through to find what you need.

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