Customer Reviews

Use Case Modeling

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Given the many misconceptions in the software community regarding what use cases are, and how to develop and apply them, Bittner and Spence present a clear, pragmatic approach to use cases that focuses on the process of synthesizing use cases rather than simply the analytics of syntax, semantics, and diagrams. More than ample time is devoted to use case structure, syntax, semantics, and style. A significant percentage of the book addresses the process and logistical issues associated with team development of a use case model. Comprehensive process discussions are included regarding discovery of actors and use cases,preparing and conducting a use case workshop, finding use case mentors, building a representative team of stakeholders, reviewing use cases, and applying use cases across the lifecycle.

Chapter 10, Here There Be Dragons, will strike a chord with every experienced use case practitioner. As a consultant that develops and reviews use case models for customers, I found this chapter to be on the money. Bittner and Spence identify many improperly-used modeling techniques that often plague organizations during their initial adoption of use cases. Specifically, the sections regarding overuse of extend, include, and generalization relationships deserves much attention.

The Use Case syntax and semantics presented in Bittner and Spence's book is based on the foundational work developed by Ivar Jacobson. Straightforward and useful examples are presented for all of the use case artifacts discussed in the book. Unlike other use case texts that emphasize use case structure, form, and analytically oriented techniques, this book presents sufficient attention to notational elements and invests significantly more in describing pragmatic activities focused on synthesizing use cases that can be effectively leveraged across the lifecycle.

I have recommended Use Case Modeling to my clients as both an introductory as reference book for any project using use cases. The writing style lends itself to the entire spectrum of stakeholders involved in use case development from end users, architects, project managers, and developers.

If you are currently employing use cases, or are considering applying use cases on a project, this book is a MUST HAVE. It de-mystifies much of the confusion surrounding the practical application of use cases, and should be put on par with the early Object Oriented texts of Booch ,Rumbaugh, and Jacobson.

No where have I found such informative and correct information on use case modeling, this book can be read from start to finish by the complete newbie and then keep it as a biblical reference whilst working with projects.

I was completely mysified about many aspects of Use Case and now I know when to apply it, and when not to, how to apply it and how not to and if I do not know, I can always refer back to this book!

The forward by Ivar Jacobson assures good content to follow, the introduction to Use Case modeling left me stunned with all the stuff that I did not know or had not considered! The connection to requirements are explained and even help on how to group requirements as well as tracebility from them to the Use Case.

The writing style is something to be admired, something I have taken as the honest truth on how to write proper use case.

If you have many questions about use case left unanswered, this book has them all.

This book is a great one. It is an excellent discussion on use case modeling, and it covers all interesting issues and questions on use case modeling I have found in projects over the last five years. In a RUP project, this book can be used as "Use Case Guidelines" as is. It definitely will be the bible for use-case writers over the next two or three years.

I bought this book after attending a conference where one of the Authors of this book had a presentation. I was so impressed by his presentation that I immediately bought his book. It was well spent money for sure.
This book not only explains what use cases are and how to model them in a very clear and easy to understand way, it also reflects on bad and good practices when writing use cases. I have been writing use cases in several projects and have had a lot of help from this book. I also frequently use the book as a reference when participating in reviews of use cases.
This book is my guide in the early stages of each project when working with use cases.
You can read it quickly and it will give you lots of advise.

This book came so highly recommended it seemed like a sure thing. And in fact, it has a wealth of info on use cases; I can certainly see it being a valuable reference for someone who is already an expert with use cases. For those with no previous exposure, however, it is a tiresome morass to wade through; so cluttered and muddled that finding the underlying meaning becomes a real challenge. This book could have been edited to 2/3rds the size, and been a far better book because of it. Was the editing staff on vacation?

I recently had to do the use case modeling for a new system and found this book. I also looked at a book by Alistar (I believe that's the name of the author) but it looked to overwhelming compared to this book. This book is easy to read and you can start creating your model right away and add more complexity as you read.
It includes partial examples of use cases for a system in the appendix but have full ones in their website.
One thing I wished they had gone deeper into is the use case 'extensions'. They do mention them but in a very limited way.
The appendix has a partial example of a use case model and states that the full example is online at www.usecasemodeling.com but it does not seem to be there, however.

I teach the official IBM Rational training called Requirements Management with Use Cases here in Brazil.

Basically this IBM training is based on this book.

It saved me a lot of time during my consulting period helping companies to create a better requirements management process using use case modeling.

I always tell all my students: If you can buy only one book about use cases (and an excellent introduction about Vision artifact and stakeholders also) then buy this one !!!!

This is the gold standard, period. Yes, there are dozens of good books about use cases, but if you had to pick one, just one, then I would strongly recommend this over any other book.

I bought this book in 2004 and have continuously used it as a reference. I have used this book to mentor new Business Analysts and those that new to use cases.

If must choose a second book, then I'd recommend Writing Effective Use Cases, by Alistair Cockburn.

Most other books

Here is the scenario... you're a business analyst that is attempt to show business clients the value of writing use cases. Many books exist with various ways to format the use case. You take all those books and write the same use case in all the different formats. Guess which one the business looked at and understood? You got it. The really fine work of Bittner and Spence. If you use a table driven methodology, your clients won't be happy. The use case structure that is recommended in this book has been used in many projects where I currently work, and they have been very successful in forming a dialog with the clients as to how they need to the use the system and what true value they get out of it. The key part of this book is the concept of maturity of the use case. This is something that you can schedule in a project plan and demonstrate to the customers. Great job guys.

This is the best book i have read on use case modeling. Pitfalls are covered in great detail. The book is well structured. The only negative thing i can think off, if I have to state one, is that the author sometimes gives better definitions of terms in places where you would not expect to find them. Still all definitions are more consistent, than I have seen in other books related to usecase modeling.