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A Successful Journey Down Use Case Paths
Key Takeaways
Using use cases as a primary technique for gathering and refining requirements proved highly effective in developing a sales follow-up application for a telecommunications company.
- Why use cases work: They focus on user tasks and interactions, making it easier for business users to understand and contribute to defining solution requirements. This approach ensures the solution aligns with real-world business needs and goals.
- Key benefits: Navigating use case paths helped identify features, functions, and user interface elements while validating the steps users perform to complete tasks. It also fostered collaboration and buy-in from business users.
- When to use them: Use cases are ideal for defining requirements for new applications or enhancements with significant user interaction. However, they may not be as beneficial for predefined features or report requirements.
The iterative nature of use cases requires time and collaboration but provides a structured framework for eliciting requirements, ensuring the solution meets both business and user needs effectively.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect the perspectives of IIBA.
Unlock the secrets to mastering software requirements with use cases, from a major telecom project. Learn how these techniques drive success in both waterfall and agile methodologies.
A challenge in software development is to gather and document requirements so that a software solution can be developed and delivered for business users. This article will describe the experience and insights gained from utilizing use cases1 as the primary technique for eliciting, specifying, and refining solution requirements for a sales follow-up software development effort at a major telecommunications company.
The software development effort that developed and delivered a software solution for retail stores of the telecommunications company, consisted of a waterfall life cycle methodology (i.e., requirements definition, design, development, testing, deployment). However, the requirements approach described in this article can be used to elicit and define features and functions that will form a requirements decomposition of user stories for an agile life cycle methodology—which will be illustrated as an extension of the requirements approach.
