Use Cases: Requirements in Context - Softcover

Kulak, Daryl; Guiney, Eamonn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201657678 ISBN 13: 9780201657678

Publisher: Addison Wesley, 2000

Synopsis

Software developers are increasingly recognizing the value of careful up-front requirements gathering in enhanced efficiency and reduced software defects. The best way to gather requirements accurately and precisely is with use cases and UML -- and this book walks you through the entire process, step-by-step. Both an excellent tutorial and a handy reference, Use Cases: Requirements in Context begins with a detailed overview of requirements gathering, its key challenges, and why traditional approaches often fail. Next, understand the key concepts underlying use cases; use case diagrams and scenarios; relationships and interactions; and the role of use cases in each major type of software development project. Review the four steps of the requirements gathering process, from problem statement through prototype; then walk through each iteration of the use case, step-by-step. The book includes insightful coverage of managing the requirements gathering process, building teams, and assuring quality -- plus a full chapter on the classic mistakes made in requirements gathering, and how to avoid them. For all systems analysts, project managers, and software engineers.

About this title

About the Author

Daryl Kulak is the president and CEO of Water-Logic Software (www.water-logic.com), an Internet business and technology consulting firm based in Columbus, Ohio. He is a graduate of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in Edmonton, Alberta. During much of his seventeen-year career managing software development projects in the United States and Canada, Daryl has focused on use cases, iterative/incremental development, and component design. Eamonn Guiney is a consultant at NewtonPartners (www.newtonpartners.com), a company that provides management consulting and system integration services to the money management industry. He is based in Sacramento, California. Eamonn creates business systems using a variety of tools, particularly object-oriented methodologies and use cases.

0201657678AB04012003

From the Back Cover

Use Cases: Requirements in Context describes how to gather and define software requirements using a process based on use cases. It shows systems analysts and designers how use cases can provide solutions to the most challenging requirements issues, resulting in effective, quality systems that meet the needs of users. Specifically, with use cases, you can:

• Reduce the incidence of duplicate and inconsistent requirements;
• Communicate requirements that are understandable to both users and developers;
• Communicate a vision of what the application needs to do without the distractions inherent in a coded prototype;
• Document the entire requirements process clearly and efficiently.

Use Cases: Requirements in Context first examines the difficulties of requirements gathering and briefly introduces both use cases and the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Using detailed examples that run through the book, it then elaborates a four-step method for establishing requirements--an iterative process that produces increasingly refined requirements. Drawing on their own extensive experience, the authors offer practical advice on how to manage this process, including guidance on planning, scheduling, and estimating. They also dedicate an entire chapter to the common mistakes made during requirements capture and specification, particularly those related to use case creation.

This detailed, hands-on book shows you how to:

• Describe the context of relationships and interactions between actors and applications using use case diagrams and scenarios;
• Specify functional and non-functional requirements;
• Create the candidate use case list;
• Break out detailed use cases and add detail to use case diagrams;
• Add triggers, preconditions, basic course of events, and exceptions to use cases.

Other tools examined in this book include the stakeholder interview, use case name filters, the context matrix, user interface requirements, team organization, and quality assurance.

0201657678B04062001

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison Wesley
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0201657678
• ISBN 13: 9780201657678
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352