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Initially, this paper will explore the challenges you face when considering where to invest your time and money in your professional development.
The paper will demonstrate how use case modeling is an essential tool to capture the functional requirements of an IT system.
The paper briefly describes the elements of a use case model and the key principle in use case modeling.
The remainder of the paper discusses how use case techniques can be applied to address the needs of your stakeholders, ensuring better engagement and improving your results.
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Rapid change is the order of the day for business analysts today. The IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis) and other national professional bodies representing business analysts have emerged over the last few years. The business analyst role is increasingly being recognized as a profession with professional accreditation such as the CBAP (Certified Business Analysis Professional) and other national standards (such as ISEB in the UK).
Actually, its a double edged sword. On the one hand, you can expect your value to your employer to be recognized. On the other, your employer expects more of you. You are expected to develop your professional skills and apply best practice.
Dont forget the profession is still emerging. Is there consensus on what is best practice? At this stage there are many different views but some approaches are more common than others. What does best practice look like? What techniques do professional business analysts delivering IT systems employ? What tools do they use? This paper will explain why use case modeling is an example of best practice and demonstrate how it will benefit you.
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This doesnt help answer your underlying question: How should I develop my professional skills? Specifically, you need to know what techniques and skills will immediately improve the quality of your work and your productivity.
You suffer the same pressures as other jobs with ever increasing demands to perform better
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Use case modeling is one such technique that is excellent at solving a particular type of problem.
The problem is capturing the functional requirements of an IT system that will deliver the solution expected by the business stakeholders. In order to do this, use case modeling must address several challenges: Introduce a shared language between the business stakeholders and the developers and testers Ensure it is accessible and intuitive to the business and is in no way technical Ensure it provides the necessary level of detail (or precision) required by the developers and testers Enable you to assist the business in discovering their requirements
The use case technique provides this solid foundation. It also delivers many other benefits for the stakeholders which you will explore later in this paper.
Your existing skills including developing relationships, clear communication and active listening are complementary skills to use case modeling
But first.
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You must understand that all use cases satisfy a goal which is valuable to the actor If you cant see the value for the actor, youve probably defined a function which is only part of a use case
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You identify all of the use cases without analyzing the detail. Once you have all the use cases supply an estimate of the complexity of the use case along with the number of interfaces to other systems. This is usually enough information for the developers to provide a rough estimate. You can work out a more scientific approach, perhaps based on use case length and predicted number of alternate flows (you may not need to invest the effort of drafting a full use case but you will have to think about the complexity of each one). You should adopt a variation on this approach to suit your organization.
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How do you help the business decide what gives the best return on investment and where the priorities lie? How do you reflect this in your business analysis documentation? How do you do it quickly!?
Prioritize the use cases with the business at the start of the project. Dont wait until the scope changes. (Click here for more on the MOSCOW prioritization technique)
Once you have identified all the use cases you prioritize the use cases at the start of the project (using the MOSCOW approach or your preferred method). When it comes to reducing the scope later in the project, you already know which use cases should be deferred or descoped. Because each use case already has independent value to the business, it is relatively easy to prioritize the use cases. It is an almost impossible task to prioritize functions as they have no independent value to the business. This is another reason why you must ensure that each use case is of value to the actor and is not simply a system function.
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The business sponsor may have a different name in your organization. In essence, its the purse holder and the ultimate decision maker who is answerable for project success or failure
The business sponsor doesnt want to know all the fine details. They just want the big picture. They are primarily interested in the overall cost, the new capabilities introduced by this project and the impact on their business. A high level view of the system is sufficient for them.
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Each of the use case ovals hides a detailed use case (as shown). You dont need to make the business sponsor aware of this detail (unless, of course, they request this detail). Whilst the business sponsor is interested in everything at a high level, most stakeholders are only interested in their area of responsibility. They just dont have the time to consider other areas. You must invest the time to prepare the view of the system which is of interest to them. This allows them to focus on giving you feedback in the area where they have an interest and expertise and can give you valuable input.
The use case diagram is a great tool for slicing the system into pieces and can be used to give a stakeholder-specific view.
The use case diagram is a great tool for showing each stakeholder the slice(s) of the system that interest them
The marketing manager will be interested in the following diagram as their primary area of interest is the customer:
The marketing manager and the marketing administrator will both be interested in this diagram:
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If you show stakeholders only the material that is important to them at the level of detail they require, they will be happier to invest their valuable time, you will gain some goodwill and you will get better feedback. You must consider each stakeholder separately and decide what level of detail works best for them. More senior stakeholders want the big picture and users want the blow by blow description of how they will interact with the system because they will be most affected.
Highlevel
Browse products * * * *
Customer
CUSINF
Moredetailed
You can show progressively more detail of your use case model. Start with the high level use case diagram. Move to the use case brief description and end with the full use case narrative. Consider what level of detail works best for each stakeholder
Full detail
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The Marketing Administrator will actually be using the system so she is keen to see exactly how the system will operate. It is very important to her that it reflects her way of working and makes her life easier. The final users of the system will not be interested in the fine detail of the system.
They may find the use cases hard work or difficult to visualize. Support them with prototypes that show a real world scenario with real world examples.
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In summary
Use case modeling is an essential tool to have in your toolbox. However, its not a silver bullet and should be applied with insight and consideration of your stakeholders. It should also be used alongside other approaches, not least your existing BA skills.
You explored the problems your stakeholders suffer and you also learnt how specific use case techniques and prototyping can be applied to solve those problems.
Ask your stakeholders where they want to be involved, the level of detail that interests them and listen carefully to their answers. Use your knowledge of the stakeholders and the relationships you have established to decide whether to present use cases alone or prototypes alongside your use cases. If you give all the stakeholders the same bulky document, it isnt going to get them on your side. Go the extra mile and prepare your use case view so it suits each stakeholders perspective and needs.
If you keep your stakeholders happy and consider their needs, they are more likely to give you their time and attention and the quality of their input will be much greater.
When it comes time for your appraisal, who gets consulted? Thats right, your peers and stakeholders on your project. So, when you employ these techniques, not only will you perform better and be happier with the results, your career should get a very real boost!!
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