What is Use Case?

The term use case refers to a prime example of the communication that occurs after an event between a human or a system and another system. A specific actor or system employs a specific application to accomplish an objective.

In 1987, Ivar Jacobson created the use case model to express complicated needs in a basic, easy-to-understand style. Since then, use cases have become an essential component of the integrated approach, a collection of rules for designing large-scale systems.

The phrase "actor" may be considered the "who," while the word "objective" can be considered the "what." A use case must include at minimum one actor and at minimum one goal.

In other words, uses cases might also be seen as methods for modeling, capturing, and specifying the requirements of a system.

Example of Use Case

As an example, let’s take a use case for doing the laundry.

A housekeeper does laundry on a Wednesday. The actor in this scenario is the housekeeper, and the use case is doing laundry. The housekeeper usually has a flow of washing, drying, folding, and ironing the laundry, so this is the typical use case.

Nevertheless, there are several alternatives that might be done differently in the process, but the end goal will still be the same. The mission of these steps of doing laundry is to show the housekeeper how to clean, fold and put away all the laundry.

Why Use Cases are Essential?

Use cases do have several advantages. Use examples to demonstrate how workflows appear step by step. They assist development teams (and stakeholders) in understanding what has to be completed, what potential scenarios exist, and which actors engage with one another at every stage of the process.

Nevertheless, use cases also:

• It paints an excessive illustration of the overall effect that assists engineers in understanding the way it helps users achieve their goals;
• It offers material that may be utilized for testing and other operations;
• It prioritizes communication among stakeholders since it is required for them to consider their tasks and functions for every use case.

Overall, any software development project would be incomplete without use cases. They assist the team with identifying essential user needs, ensuring that design and implementation are in line with corporate objectives, and providing a clear list of what the program must perform. 

As a result, they assist teams in avoiding scope creep, which is one of the leading reasons for software project failure.

Furthermore, use cases have been shown to aid in the resolution of key organizational difficulties. For example, if a person runs an eCommerce page and sells several things, they may be a specialist on these goods but not on the technology used to develop them.

That is where use cases come into play, they eliminate the need to hunt for information that may or may not be as accurate or relevant, as well as the danger of being left with something that does not operate as expected.

Moreover, there are two main types of use cases: business use cases and system use cases. The main distinction between them is the level of detail that they were written.