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Use Case
We established that user stories are high-level descriptions of what a user wants to achieve with a system. These user stories must be further broken down into use-cases in order to provide more detailed information about how the system will respond to the user’s interactions.
Use Case
Use-case in the context of software requirement specification is a specific set of actions, conditions, and/or events that indicate how a system should respond to an interaction with one of its users or an external system. It is an effective way to capture the expected behavior of a system from the user's point of view.
For example, a user story could be "As an instructor, I want to be able to create courses on the platform so that I can document and share the learning outcomes for my courses." A use-case for this user story follows.
Example use-case:
Title
Create Course
Actors
Instructor
Preconditions
The instructor must have an account on the platform.
Flow
- The instructor logs into their account on the platform.
- The instructor selects the “Create Course” option.
- The platform displays the course creation form.
- The instructor fills out the course creation form, which includes the course title, description, and learning outcomes.
- The platform saves the course and displays a confirmation page.
Postconditions
The course is created, and the instructor is able to view it on their account page.
Exceptions
- If the course information is incomplete, the platform will display an error message.
- If the instructor does not have an account on the platform, the platform will not allow access to the course creation page.
Caution
You must write at least one use case for each user story! Moreover, you are encouraged to create a sequence diagram and wireframe for your use cases.
Sequence diagram
Sequence diagrams can be used to supplement use-cases by showing the sequence of interactions between the user, the system, and any external systems. Sequence diagrams can provide a visual representation of the various use-case scenarios, and can help to identify any gaps in the requirements.
Example
Wireframe
Building a user interface (UI) typically starts by building a Mockup or a Wireframe that represents the skeletal framework of the UI and how user interacts with it.
Wireframes can also be used to supplement use-cases by providing a visual representation of how the user will interact with the system. Wireframes can help to identify any usability issues and provide a better understanding of how the user interacts with the system.
Example
There are some software solutions aimed at wireframing, like Balsamiq. There are more powerful tools like Sketch, Figma, InVision, etc., that can be used for high-fidelity wireframing and prototyping. In this course, you can keep it simple and use general purpose (and free) diagraming tools such as Diagrams.net for wireframing.