Friday 9 September 2016

"Use case diagram" is not a good title for a chapter in an analysis document

As an analyst, I write documents as the result of business analysis or functional analysis containing requirements for systems.

In such document, it is not a good idea to name a chapter "Use case diagram" or "Class diagram", just because the chapter mostly consists of this diagram.

You would not name a chapter "Table" or "Paragraph with text", would you?

Such a title only specifies the presentation format. It would be much better to use the semantics of the chapter as title.

I often use a use case diagram to define the "Scope of this document", which would make a far better title.

The following is a PlantUML diagram that I used to define the scope of a document.




@startuml
skinparam packageStyle rect
left to right direction
actor Foo
actor "Actor 1" as actor1
actor "Actor 2" as actor2
rectangle Organisation {
(UCINK-01:\rProcess of treating\rcards from\rexternal source) as (INK1)
actor2 -- (INK1)
package "This Document" {
Foo -- (ask <b>treatment</b> by foo)
(decide over <b>treatment</b>) -– actor1
(INK1) .> (make <b>treatment</b> request) : <<include>>
}
(modify <b>treatment</b>) -- actor1
Foo –- (consult related data)
(INK1) .> (automatic <b>treatment</b>) : <<include>>

}
@enduml


example use case diagram

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