

Look for common functionality that can be reused across the system. Look for Common Functionality to use Include Now you can fine tune it and add extra layers of detail to it. Once you identify the actors and the top level use case you have a basic idea of the system. You can extend or include use cases depending on the complexity of the system. Top level use cases should always provide a complete function required by an actor. So all of these can be considered as use cases. In a banking system, a customer will need to open accounts, deposit and withdraw funds, request check books and similar functions. A good way to do this is to identify what the actors need from the system. The loan processor is a good example of an external system associated as an actor. Other actors can be bank employee or cashier depending on the role you’re trying to show in the use case.Īn example of an external organization can be the tax authority or the central bank. In a banking system, the most obvious actor is the customer. It can be a person, another system or an organization. Identifying ActorsĪctors are external entities that interact with your system. Up to now, you’ve learned about objects, relationships and guidelines that are critical when drawing use case diagrams. I’ll explain the various processes using a banking system as an example. We will not go into detail in this post but you can check out relationships in use case diagrams. We have covered all these relationships in a separate blog post that has examples with images.

These include naming standards, directions of arrows, the placing of use cases, usage of system boxes and also proper usage of relationships. They are drawn like the image shown below.Īlthough use case diagrams can be used for various purposes there are some common guidelines you need to follow when drawing use cases. Similar to class diagrams, packages are used to group together use cases. The package is another optional element that is extremely useful in complex diagrams. Or you can even use it to show the different areas covered in different releases. For example, you can create all the use cases and then use the system object to define the scope covered by your project. This an optional element but useful when you’re visualizing large systems. The system is used to define the scope of the use case and drawn as a rectangle. It’s drawn as an oval and named with the function. This could be a person, organization or an external system and usually drawn like skeleton shown below.Ī use case represents a function or an action within the system. ActorĪctor in a use case diagram is any entity that performs a role in one given system.

You can highlight the roles that interact with the system and the functionality provided by the system without going deep into inner workings of the system.
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