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[OT] No-nonsense guide to Use Cases?

Lyle Johnson

12/1/2004 9:41:00 PM

All,

I have a basic understanding of what use cases are and their role in
requirements modeling, but I'd like to learn more about this approach
(with the hope that it would work well at my company). Can any of my
friends in the Ruby Community recommend a good, no-nonsense guide to
developing use cases (i.e. the book that Dave and Andy would write, if
they were to write a book about use cases)?

Based on the editorial reviews at Amazon.com, Alistair Cockburn's book
("Writing Effective Use Cases") sounds pretty good, but then again,
the purpose of those editorial reviews is to make your book sound
pretty good. ;) Would like to hear recommendations from anyone who's
used such a book to get a handle on the proper care and feeding of use
cases, and seen improvements in their requirements modeling as a
result. Let me reiterate that I'm looking for a book that leans more
towards practical application and less towards an academic treatment
of the subject.

Thanks in advance,

Lyle
7 Answers

Sascha Ebach

12/1/2004 9:52:00 PM

0

Hi Lyle.

> Based on the editorial reviews at Amazon.com, Alistair Cockburn's book
> ("Writing Effective Use Cases") sounds pretty good, but then again,
> the purpose of those editorial reviews is to make your book sound
> pretty good. ;) Would like to hear recommendations from anyone who's
> used such a book to get a handle on the proper care and feeding of use
> cases, and seen improvements in their requirements modeling as a
> result. Let me reiterate that I'm looking for a book that leans more
> towards practical application and less towards an academic treatment
> of the subject.

Well, you named it. I read the book and it is wonderful. It is exactly
the thing you are looking for. You mention Andy and Dave as a quality
reference. I would put Mr. Cockburn right on the same level. A lot of
his writing is very good.

--
Sascha Ebach

James Britt

12/1/2004 11:22:00 PM

0

Lyle Johnson wrote:
> All,
>
> Based on the editorial reviews at Amazon.com, Alistair Cockburn's book
> ("Writing Effective Use Cases") sounds pretty good, but then again,
> the purpose of those editorial reviews is to make your book sound
> pretty good. ;)


I haven't read Cockburn's book, but have read assorted things from his
Web site, and have been generally impressed with his ideas and presentation.


http://alistair.cockburn.us/crystal/articles/sucwg/structuringucswit...

for example.



James

Jim Freeze

12/2/2004 4:27:00 AM

0

* Sascha Ebach <se@digitale-wertschoepfung.de> [2004-12-02 06:52:24 +0900]:

> >Based on the editorial reviews at Amazon.com, Alistair Cockburn's book
> >("Writing Effective Use Cases") sounds pretty good, but then again,

That's just about all you will need on the subject. :)
I read the pre-published version years ago. Very good.

--
Jim Freeze
Code Red. Code Ruby

Brian Palmer

12/2/2004 4:33:00 AM

0

I haven't had a chance to read "Writing Effective Use Cases" yet, but
it's definitely on my list. Cockburn came and spoke to my class recently
about use cases and designing large software systems, and I was very,
very impressed with his ideas and his manner of presenting them.

- Brian Palmer

Lyle Johnson wrote:

>All,
>
>I have a basic understanding of what use cases are and their role in
>requirements modeling, but I'd like to learn more about this approach
>(with the hope that it would work well at my company). Can any of my
>friends in the Ruby Community recommend a good, no-nonsense guide to
>developing use cases (i.e. the book that Dave and Andy would write, if
>they were to write a book about use cases)?
>
>Based on the editorial reviews at Amazon.com, Alistair Cockburn's book
>("Writing Effective Use Cases") sounds pretty good, but then again,
>the purpose of those editorial reviews is to make your book sound
>pretty good. ;) Would like to hear recommendations from anyone who's
>used such a book to get a handle on the proper care and feeding of use
>cases, and seen improvements in their requirements modeling as a
>result. Let me reiterate that I'm looking for a book that leans more
>towards practical application and less towards an academic treatment
>of the subject.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Lyle
>
>
>
>
>
>

Joey Gibson

12/2/2004 1:35:00 PM

0

On 12/1/2004 16:41, Lyle Johnson wrote:

>Based on the editorial reviews at Amazon.com, Alistair Cockburn's book
>("Writing Effective Use Cases") sounds pretty good, but then again,
>

I'll add my recommendation with everyone else's. Cockburn's book is very
good and thorough, yet small enough to easily digest. You should get it.


--
She drove a Plymouth Satellite
Faster than the Speed of Light...

http://www.joeygibso...
http://www.joeygibso.../life/Wisdom.html
Atlanta Ruby User Group http://www....

Lyle Johnson

12/2/2004 4:30:00 PM

0

Thanks very much for everyone who's responded so far (and I'm still
monitoring this thread if anyone has other recommendations)! Sounds
like Cockburn's book is a must-have, and I'll check out some of the
other recommended books as well.

Thanks again for all the good advice.

Piergiuliano Bossi

12/3/2004 7:01:00 AM

0

Lyle Johnson wrote:

> All,
>
> I have a basic understanding of what use cases are and their role in
> requirements modeling, but I'd like to learn more about this approach
> (with the hope that it would work well at my company). Can any of my
> friends in the Ruby Community recommend a good, no-nonsense guide to
> developing use cases (i.e. the book that Dave and Andy would write, if
> they were to write a book about use cases)?

I'd like to suggest some alternatives for you:
*) start with "Object Oriented Software Engineering", from Ivar
Jacobson, read especially the chapters where he introduces the concept
of use case with the example of the recycling maching (don't have the
numbers here, sorry, maybe from chapter 7) ==> it's a pleasure to read
and it gives you all the fundamentals
*) read chapter 3 of "UML Distilled", from Martin Fowler ==> it gives
you a basic idea about what use cases are and what to do with them
*) then you have to read chapter 6 and 7 of "Applying UML and Patterns",
from Craig Larman ==> these are very good if you want to build an
effective iterative process of requirements engineering based on use
cases (IMHO the only thing that can possibly work if you are not ready
to take the agile way)

Last step is to experiment: do it a lot, make mistakes, see what works
well for you and what is bad. Refine as you go.

Have fun! :-)

Giuliano

--
If you want to send me an email address should be 'p', then a dot,
followed by 'bossi' at 'quinary', another dot and 'com' at last