RE: use cases - what are they good for

["Downing, David" <DavidDowning -at- Users -dot- com>]

Actually, we've begun including use cases in our project documentation
as well.  I'm hoping the use cases will be useful in writing
user-documentation, but I still have to get the hang of using the use
cases properly.

-----Original Message-----
From: Neumann, Eileen [mailto:ENeuman -at- franklintempleton -dot- ca] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 10:53 AM
Subject: use cases - what are they good for


Hi Tech Whirl,

Does anyone use 'use cases' to develop / write procedures? I've been
investigating this topic, and it seems that use cases are very good for
explaining how various systems and / or people interact. However, I'm
thinking that they are not going to be of use to my type of
documentation. I am writing a user guide for processors in a financial
institution - basically giving them instructions on how to perform
various tasks on a large database. The goal is having easy to understand
task based instructions. The procedure is written from a processor's
point of view.

The business recovery division of my company swears by use cases. The
material they produce however is not at all user friendly however, as
it's written at such a high level. They do have different goals and a
different audience than I do.

Use cases are appealing to me in that they give me a standard method of
analyzing procedures, instead of just starting to write and hoping for
the best. However, the results that I have seen aren't at all what we
require for procedures.

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

Thanks for your help,

Eileen Neumann
Franklin Templeton Investments
 
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