Template for Use Cases

Use this template to document the detailed descriptions of your use cases. You can create these as plain ASCII text documents, with Word, or as HTML. You don't need a special case tool to create these.

Replace all items below that are shown in italics. Put these things in this order, but you may format them in any nice, readable way you want.

• Use case number or id. (Often a nice symbolic name is good here, like "MG001" to refer to the 1st use-case related to "management".)
• Use case title. Use a short phrase. Often in the form verb-object like "Withdraw cash". Not having a subject or noun before the verb often makes sense because multiple actors may carry out this use case.)
• Text descripton (a few sentences)
• Actors who might initiate this use case. (Other actors who do not initiate the use case may be affected, and this should be documented somewhere, perhaps in the post-condition section.)
• Preconditions. (If applicable. This may be described in terms of system or entity states, or possibly in terms of other use cases that have been carried out before this one.)
• Triggers (that initiate the use case, if not directly initiated by an actor)
• Basic Path Flow of Events. This is for the main or most fundamental scenario in this use case. Usually written as series of short steps, each described in terms of how the actors and the system interact.
  1. First step
  2. Second step
  3. etc
• Descriptions of Alternative Paths: (One or more, if applicable. These may be alternative "correct" scenarios or scenarios that represent exceptions or errors. For these, you could list steps just like you did for the Basic Path above. Or, you can just describe changes to the Basic Path.)
  1. Name and short description (in words) of 1st alternative path/scenario.
  2. Name and short description (in words) of 2nd alternative path/scenario, etc.
• Postconditions (If applicable.)
• Special conditions. (If applicable. These might include constraints, but I don't think you'll need this section.)