Use Case Card

Definition

Use Case Card

a requirements work product consisting of a large index card used during the requirements identification task to informally capture the cohesive set of functional requirements associated with a single use case

Objectives

The objective of a use case card is to informally document a cohesive set of operational requirements in terms of a single use case and its associated use case paths.

Benefits

The typical benefits of a use case card are:

• Use case cards enable the requirements team to quickly capture requirements during a requirements identification interview or workshop.
• Use case cards provide input to the operational requirements section of the system requirements specification.

Contents

The typical mandatory contents of a use case card are:

• The use case name
• The primary actor benefiting from the use case
• A narrative English paragraph capturing:
  • The use case requirement
  • A list of normal and exceptional use case paths

The typical optional contents of a use case card are:

• Any relevant business rules or policies
• The business justification

Stakeholders

The typical stakeholders of a use case card are:

• Producer: Requirements Team
• Evaluators: None
• Approvers: None
• Maintainers: None
• Users:
  • Requirements Team, which uses the use case cards as input to the operational requirements section of the System Requirements Specification.

Phases

Use case cards are typically produced during the following phases:

• Business Strategy: Completed
• Construction: Deleted or Maintained
• Initiation: Completed
• Construction: Deleted or Maintained
• Delivery: Deleted or Maintained
• Usage: Deleted or Maintained
• Retirement: Deleted or Archived

Preconditions

Use case cards typically can be started if the following preconditions hold:

• The requirements team has been staffed.
• Domain experts who know the operational requirements are available.

Inputs

The typical inputs to a use case card include:

• Work Products:
  • Application Vision Statement
  • Actor Cards
  • Existing customer documentation
• Stakeholders:
  • Customer domain experts
  • Developer domain experts
  • Users

Guidelines

• Do not use the informal use case cards to replace the formally specified operational requirements in the system requirements specification.
• There is no need to maintain the use case cards once their information has been incorporated into the operational requirements section of the system requirements specification.

Conventions

Use case cards typically are constrained by the following conventions:

• Use Case Modeling Guidelines
• Inspection Checklist

Examples

• Electric Auction and Sales System Use Case Card