Artifact: Business Use-case Model |
A model of the business goals and intended functions from an external perspective. It is used as an essential input to identify roles and deliverables in the organization.
Domains: Business Modeling
Purpose
To describe the direction and intent of the business. To aid in identifying the business goals. To describe the interaction between the stakeholders, customers, and the business.
Relationships
Fulfilled Slots | [Business Requirements]
Roles | Responsible: Business Analyst | Modified By: Business Analyst
Tasks | Input To: Model a Scenario Model the Business Structure the Business Use-Case Model Define the Business Model the Business Define the Business | Output From: Define the Business Structure the Business Use-Case Model
Description
Main Description | If the purpose of the business modeling effort is to re-engineer the target organization, consider maintaining two variants of the Business Use-Case Model: one that shows the business actors and business use cases of the current organization (sometimes called "as-is"), and one that shows the target organization with new business actors and business use cases ("to-be"). If you are considering a significant redesign of the way the target organization works (business re-engineering), this separation is needed otherwise the redesign will be developed without knowing what the proposed changes really are at the end, and you will not be able to estimate the effects or costs of those changes. It is like an architect who is asked to draw up plans for changing a townhouse into three flats, without having an as-is blueprint from which to work. The cost of maintaining two Business Use-Case Models is not insignificant, and carefully consider how much effort you put into a current model. Typically, you would not do more than identify and briefly describe the business use cases* and business actors. You would also briefly outline the business use cases you determine are key to the effort, possibly illustrating this with a simple activity diagram. The level of detail you choose aims at providing a shared understanding of the target organization. You would not need this separation in the following situations: there is no "new" organization (the goal is to document an existing organization) there is no existing organization* (business creation) Business actors in the use-case model are used by: business analysts, to define the boundaries of the organization and describe the interactions between actors and business use cases user-interface designers, as input to capturing characteristics on human actors in the a system system analysts, as input to finding system actors *Note: when modeling an existing organization to create an as-is model, you need to do little more than create the brief descriptions of business use cases, business actors and key business events and associate these with the existing business goals because you can move more directly to capturing actual current business processes that realize these business use cases. The current business use cases serve as anchors to explain the purpose of the current business processes. When the purpose is business creation, the new business use cases are specifications for achievement of the business goals, for a business that does not yet exist. Consequently, they will need much more detail.
Brief Outline | The Business Use Case Model can have the following properties: Introduction: A textual description that serves as a brief introduction to the model. Survey Description: A textual description that contains information not reflected by the rest of the Business Use-Case Model, including typical sequences in which the business use cases are employed by users and functionality not handled by the Business Use-Case Model. Business Use-Case Packages: The packages in the model, representing a hierarchy. Business Goals: The business goals in the model, owned by the packages. Business Use Cases: The business use cases in the model, owned by the packages. Business Actors: The business actors in the model, owned by the packages. Relationships: The relationships in the model, owned by the packages. Diagrams: The diagrams in the model, owned by the packages.
Selected Representation | UML Representation: Model, stereotyped as <<business use-case model>> UML Representation: Actor, stereotyped as <<business actor>>.
Key Considerations
The Business Use Case Model is used by stakeholders and business analysts to understand and improve the way the business interacts with its environment, and by systems analysts and software architects to provide context for software development. The project manager uses this artifact to plan the content of iterations during business modeling and track progress.
Tailoring
Impact of not having | Without this artifact, it is difficult to determine all of the relationships between actors and use cases. It is also difficult to gain an understanding of how different use cases relate to the organization as a whole.
Reasons for not needing | This artifact isn't required if the value the business provides is already well understood, the actors are identified and documented, and the manner in which customers and the business interacts is already well defined.
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