Use cases? Uh … isn’t it one of those UML diagrams with stickmen, boxes, and bubbles? There is more to it, and “Writing Effective Use-cases” by A. Cockburn is the place to start.
I am always unsure about how much requirement I need, especially when building prototypes? So, reading about use-cases, I came across it on M. Fowler’s post on his “Use Cases”. It still costs about 30 EUR on Amazon, but I went for it anyway. Several years ago, I had read Software Requirements by K. Wiegers, I felt I needed a refresher.
Here come 300 pages on use-cases only. Part I details the various sections they include, whereas Part II discusses frequently asked questions. Part III concludes with a list of “reminders for the busy”. UML diagrams only show up in appendix.
A. Cockburn is another contributor to the Agile Manifesto and created the Crystal family of agile methodology. He authored several books on both use-cases and agile methods.
I found this book very practical as it focuses on textual use-cases as opposed to graphical views as in UML, for instance. We dive straight in with the use case document and its different sections: Scope, main scenario, extensions, etc. Alistair helps with the writing style and provides two templates for the so-called casual and fully-dressed formats. On the downside, I feel the process to collect and refine use-cases is somewhat less clear, but I am guessing this goes beyond the intended scope.
I finally give it 3 stars. It is a good and practical book and a reference I will definitely keep in mind. On the downside, I still do not get how far to go with the requirements.