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Subject:Re: Use Cases - NEED INPUT - PLEASE HELP From:David Neeley <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 8 Jul 2005 11:27:03 -0500
Anthony, Dick, Lisa, et al.:
Use cases can also be rather foolish when applied by rote. I had a
memorable experience with the use cases done for a new feature being
implemented for a Nortel switch by one of the engineers. He had six
pages of text to describe what he had in mind. It took me two solid
days to begin to understand what he was trying to say, even though he
included separate diagrams for each of six scenarios; the resulting
documentation was a page and a half with one very simple diagram and a
brief table. The doc manager's comment was "Ah, now I see what he was
trying to say!"
> If you are gamed to be thorough or if seasoned business analysts are
> providing the UCs, then you should perhaps investigate UML
> (http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/769.html) for
> illustrating UCs. If you are expected to create the UCs, then you can
> create diagrams from the UML symbols in MS Visio once you understand the
> symbol relationships.
It isn't necessary to invest in Visio if you don't already have it.
UML diagrams can be created in Dia, for example, which is available
for a free download in versions that run on Linux, various versions of
UNIX, and also on Windows. The homepage Screenshots link shows the Dia
UML properties sheet. http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/
The program is not yet to version 1.0, but is still under active
development. It has a rudimentary scripting ability that is to become
much more robust, allowing more flexibility in making the program
extensible in various ways using the Python scripting language.
Meanwhile, for basic diagramming including UML, you might find it more
than adequate although it isn't as robust in Windows yet as I'd like.
You certainly can't beat the price, however!
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