Actor Card
- Actor Card
(a.k.a., External Card)
- a
requirements work product consisting of a large index card that is used during the
requirements identification task to
informally document a single
external
The typical objective of an actor card is to:
- Partially capture the context of the application,
application domain, or component.
- Informally document the important information about the
external such as name, definition stereotype,
responsibilities, relationship, and required expertise (if
the external is a human actor).
The typical benefits of an actor card are:
The typical contents of an actor card are the
external’s:
- Name.
- Definition.
-
Stereotype. (e.g., human actor, data repository, hardware
external, software external, system external).
-
Responsibilities
- Relationship (e.g., client, server, peer) to the
application, application domain, or component.
- Required Expertise (if a human actor).
-
State Model.
The typical stakeholders of an actor card are:
- Producer:
Requirements Team
- Evaluators: None
- Approvers: None
- Maintainers: None
- Users:
Actor cards are typically produced during the following
phases:
External cards typically can be started if the following
preconditions hold:
The typical inputs to an actor card include:
- Work Products:
- Stakeholders:
- There is typically no need to maintain the actor cards
once their information has been incorporated into the
operational requirements section of the
system requirements specification.
- Actor cards are typically developed incrementally,
iteratively, and in parallel with other requirements work
products (e.g., use case cards, requirements executive
summary, system requirements specification, glossary, and
domain model document).
Actor cards are typically constrained by the following
conventions: