Chapter 5. Use Cases

Use Cases

Use cases are a wonderful idea that has been vastly overcomplicated. Over and over again I have seen teams sitting and spinning in their attempts to write use cases. Typically they thrash on issues of form rather than substance. They argue and debate over preconditions, postconditions, actors, secondary actors, and a bevy of other things that just don't matter.

The real trick to use cases is to keep them simple. Don't worry about use case forms, just write them on blank paper, or on a blank page in a simple word processor, or on blank index cards. Don't worry about filling in all the details. Details aren't important until much ...

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