Instructor NotesModule5:Analyzing
Information: UseCasesandUsage
Scenarios
Introduction
This module provides students with the first step toward taking information that
they have gathered and organizing it to describe the current state. Students work
with usecasesandusagescenarios to describe workflow processes in the
Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. case study.
After completing this module, students will be able to:
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Describe a process for synthesizing information.
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Explain the concepts of usecasesandusage scenarios.
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Create use cases.
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Create usage scenarios.
Materials and Preparation
This section provides you with the materials and preparation needed to teach
this module.
Materials
To teach this module, you need the following materials:
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Microsoft
®
PowerPoint
®
file P05_1585.ppt
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Module 5, "Analyzing Information:UseCasesandUsage Scenarios"
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Activity 5.1, "Transitioning from Gathering to Analyzing Information"
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Activity 5.2, "Creating Use Cases"
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Activity 5.3, "Creating Usage Scenarios"
Preparation
To prepare for this module, you should:
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Read all the materials for this module.
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Complete the activities.
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Review relevant portions of The Unified Modeling Language User Guide by
Grady Booch, James Rumbaugh, and Ivar Jacobson.
Presentation:
60 Minutes
Activities:
85 Minutes
2 InstructorNotesModule5:AnalyzingInformation:UseCasesandUsageScenarios
Activities
This section provides procedures for implementing interactive activities to
present or review information, such as games, simulations, or role-playing
exercises.
Activity 5.1: Transitioning from Gathering to Analyzing
Information
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To prepare for the activity
1. Review the case study.
Up to this point, students have been engaged in reviewing the case study to
determine the problems with the timesheet system that consultants use at
Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. The purpose of the class discussion is to ensure that
students realize that they now need to shift gears and look at the information
critically to document the current state so that they can determine the user and
business requirements related to the business challenge.
Student can identify current state and future wants during the discussion, but be
sure that they identify whether each of the statements would be considered a
current-state requirement or a want for an application solution. The purpose of
this part of the activity is to get students to think in terms of analyzing the
information. They will go into more detail for the activities in Module 6.
Have students reflect on any process that they might have gone through
previously, in terms of analyzing large amounts of information to determine
what is happening in a business. Use your experience to provide examples.
Also, ensure that students have the opportunity to regularly reflect on the
importance of such factors as security, maintainability, extensibility, and
performance, all of which will affect the development of the final product.
Activity 5.2: Creating UseCases
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To prepare for the activity
1. Review the case study.
2. Create usecases for the case study.
Observe students’ progress in the activity. If they are having trouble, create a
few usecases as a class and then have them resume individual work. At the end
of the activity, create a list with the class for both the consultants and the
administrative assistants. Quickly look at other parts of the case study to have
students call out usecases as a means to verify that students understand how to
develop use cases. Once again, ensure that the students’ usecases are focused
on describing the current state and on how things currently work, not on how
they could be changed.
Questions for Class Discussion
The following questions can help start a discussion of the activity:
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Can you suggest hidden users and systems that you would need to
investigate?
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To what extent have you used usecases in your work?
InstructorNotesModule5:AnalyzingInformation:UseCasesandUsageScenarios 3
Activity 5.3: Creating UsageScenarios
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To prepare for the activity
1. Review the case study.
2. Develop usagescenarios for at least two of the usecases so that you can use
them in class if necessary.
Students may have trouble determining the amount of detail that they should
use for the usage scenarios. Remind them to look at the case study and review
the steps that the consultants and administrative assistants must follow when
entering information on to the timesheets. As you discuss usagescenarios that
students developed, indicate where a usage scenario contains tasks that could be
developed into additional usecasesandusage scenarios.
Questions for Class Discussion
The following questions can help start a discussion of the activity:
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Now that you have written usage scenarios, did you discover information
that you need to go back and gather?
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Module Strategy
Use the following strategy to present this module:
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Transitioning to Analysis
The purpose of this section is to point out to students that they are moving
from one phase of gathering andanalyzing business requirements to another
stage. Students need to understand that they need to both analyze the
information and assess the quality of the information that they have gathered
about the business. In addition, students should keep in mind information
related to the business, applications, information, and technology that the
project will need to take into account to be successful.
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Activity 5.1, "Transitioning from Gathering to Analyzing Information"
Use this activity as an opportunity to reflect on the gathering process that
the students have just completed and the importance of validating
information with other project team members.
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Use Cases
Students need to understand that usecasesandusagescenarios are the first
steps in clearly describing the current state. Usecasesandusagescenarios
provide the basic structure to the information that has been gathered. The
information from the gathering phase is captured in many ways and many
different formats. Moving the information into the use case format begins
the process of taking randomly structured information and putting it in a
common format that is easier to validate with the sources and easier to
communicate to the development team. Students should also understand that
many similar sources have provided information in the gathering phase. For
example, the team may have talked with three different people who perform
the role of administrative assistant. Each interview would be transformed
into its own set of use cases. Often, these usecases will contain duplicate
information. Students will organize the usecases in the next module.
Students should follow this process to help ensure that they obtain a more
complete understanding of system use because some sources will include
and omit different kinds of information.
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Activity 5.2, "Creating Use Cases"
Verify that each student is able to create use cases. They will use their use
cases in Module 6. If students have problems creating use cases, develop a
set with them that they will be able to use later.
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Usage Scenarios
When discussing the objects, you should point out to students that the
models developed during conceptual design will be used by the
development team during logical design. All of the steps that they are
performing are part of the conceptual design process. Emphasize that they
need to describe the current state accurately and completely because it
relates to the business challenge. Additionally, usagescenarios are an
excellent tool to help the development team understand how the users
interact with the system, not just what tasks the user accomplishes. In
determining how many usagescenarios to create for a system, you can again
suggest the hierarchical nature of usagescenariosand how they can
potentially identify usecases that were missed during the initial analysis and
that need to be separated out into high-level use cases. Also, you can
suggest that use cases, which are not as well understood by the project team
or the users, may require many scenarios to increase the level of
InstructorNotesModule5:AnalyzingInformation:UseCasesandUsageScenarios 5
understanding. In the end, it comes down to experience and the ability to
accomplish this process in an iterative fashion. If the project team finds that
several members disagree or that it does not have enough information to
proceed, they can go back in the process and create additional usage
scenarios or use cases, or gather additional information.
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Activity 5.3, "Creating Usage Scenarios"
Work with students to identify at least one use case from a usage scenario
and have them develop a new usage scenario for the use case as a group.
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Instructor Notes Module 5: Analyzing Information: Use Cases and Usage Scenarios 5
understanding. In the end, it comes down to experience and. written usage scenarios, did you discover information
that you need to go back and gather?
4 Instructor Notes Module 5: Analyzing Information: Use Cases and