System Analysis & Design

Use Case Diagram

Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
 Use Case Diagram

• Use cases represent system functionality, the

requirements of the system from the user's
perspective

• Use cases just focus on automated processes

• Use case diagrams show the interactions between

•Use cases: what the system should do, and
•Actors: anyone or anything that interacts with
the system (Individual, group, company,…)

Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Example

Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Actor

• An actor is anyone or anything that is outside the

system’s scope but interacts with it (Individual,
group, company,…)

• There are three types of actors:

• Users of the system
 physical person, or a user who will be directly using the system

• Other systems that will interact with the system

being built

• Time
 Time becomes an actor when the passing of a certain amount of
time triggers some event in the system (out of control)
Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Use Case

• It is the functionality the system will provide a value to

the end user

• Use cases are an implementation-independent:

• High-level view of what the user expects from the system
• Focus on what the system should do, not how the system
will do it

• A typical system will have somewhere between 20 and

70 use cases

• The use cases should be named in user terms, not technical

terms, and should be meaningful to the customer
Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Use Case
. cont

• So, when you have the final list of use cases, how
do you know if you've found them all?
- Is each functional requirement in at least one use case? If a
requirement is not in a use case, it will not be implemented.
- Have you considered how each end user will be using the system?
- What information will each end user be providing for the system?
- What information will each end user be receiving from the system?
- Have you considered maintenance issues? Someone will need to start
the system and shut it down.
- Have you identified all of the external systems with which the system
will need to interact?
- What information will each external system be providing to the
system and receiving from the system?
Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Use Case: Flow of Events

• To actually build the system, though, you'll need

more specific details. These details are written as
the flow of events

• The purpose of the flow of events is to document

the flow of logic through the use case

• Although it is detailed, the flow of events is still

implementation-independent

Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Use Case: Flow of Events

. cont

• This document will describe in detail what the user of

the system will do and what the system itself will do

• Notice the pattern in the flow of events:

• The user does something, then
• The system does something in response,
• Then the user does something, then the system
responds, and so on

Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Use Case: Flow of Events

. cont

It includes:
• *A brief description: Each use case should include a
short description that explains what the use case will
do

• Preconditions: list any conditions that have to be

met before the use case can start at all. For example,
the precondition for one use case may be that another
use case has run

• *Flow of events

• Post conditions: are conditions that must always be

true after the use case has finished executing. Like
preconditions, post conditions
Source
can be used to add
information about the
Mastering order
UML with
2002
Rationalin
Rosewhich the use cases
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Use Case: Flow of Events Types

• There are three types of flows:

• Primary flow is the "happy day" scenario, or the

most frequently used path through the use case

• Alternate flows are deviations from the primary

flow that do not suggest an error condition

• Error flows are deviations from the primary or

alternate flows that suggest some sort of error
condition. Error flows suggest that there is a
problem with the system itself

Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Use Case: Flow of Events Users

• There are three primary users of the flow of events:

1- The customers will be reviewing this document

to make sure it accurately reflects their expectations

2- The system designers will be using it to create

the system design and eventually to build the system

3- The quality assurance team will use the flow of

events to create test scripts

The flow of events must give them enough information to

understand the sequence of events that needs to occur
through the use case
Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Relationships
• The association relationship is used to show the
relationship between a use case and an actor

• There are two types of relationships between use

cases
• Includes relationship
• Extends relationship

These relationships are used when there is a certain

amount of commonality between the use cases

• Generalization relationship is the only relationship

allowed betweenMastering
actors Source
UML with Rational Rose
2002
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Relationships: Association
• Association relationship is used to show the
relationship between a use case and an actor

• Every use case must be initiated by an actor, With the

exception of use cases in includes and extends
relationships

Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Relationships: Includes
• Includes relationship allows one use case to use
the functionality provided by another use case
• This relationship can be used in one of two cases:
• First, if two or more use cases have a large piece of
functionality that is identical
•The second case where an includes relationship is
helpful is a situation in which a single use case has an
unusually large amount of functionality

• An includes relationship suggests that one use

case always uses the functionality provided by
another <<includes>
>

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Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Relationships: Extends
• Extends relationship allows one use case the
option to extend the functionality provided by
another use case

• It is very similar to an includes relationship,

because in both of these types of relationships, you
separate some common functionality into its own
<<extends>
use case >
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Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Abstract Use Case

•An abstract use case is one that is not started
directly by an actor

•Instead, an abstract use case provides some

additional functionality that can be used by other
use cases

• Abstract use cases are the use cases that

participate in an includes or extends relationship

Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Example

Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Elements of Use Case Diagram

Relationships: Generalization
• Generalization relationship is used to show that
several actors

• For example, you may have two types of

customers. If the type A customers will be initiating
some use cases that type B customers will not, it's
probably worth including the actor generalizations. If
both types of customers use the same use cases, it's
probably not necessary to show an actor
generalization
Practice
• Draw a Use Case Diagram shows the
interactions between the use cases and
actors of an ATM system:
• The bank's customer initiates a number of use
cases: Withdraw Money, Deposit Funds, Transfer
Funds, Make Payment, View Balance, and Change
PIN.
• The bank officer can also initiate the Change PIN
use case.
• The Make Payment use case provides credit card
payment information to the credit system.

Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
 Source
Mastering UML with Rational Rose
2002
Thank You 