Use Cases and Wireframes
Course Length: 2 days
DESCRIPTION
Use case modeling is a commonly used analysis technique which results in functional requirements and a framework for test case development. When the solution to a business problem or opportunity involves a software component, the solution team must determine how software will best support the business. A use case diagram clearly depicts the scope of the solution to be designed which can help set expectations for stakeholders as to the complexity and interactions with the system.
TARGET AUDIENCE
This course is designed for business analysts, systems analysts, or any other project team members responsible for developing functional, non-functional, and transition requirements. Students are encouraged to bring examples of their requirements documents to the class for review and feedback. This course may also be appropriate for individuals who manage business analysts. Developers and solution implementers will benefit from an understanding of how functional and non-functional requirements are elicited and analyzed.
PREREQUISITES
We recommend that students first attend our Essential Skills for Business Analysis class or have experience in project scope definition, eliciting requirements from stakeholders, and understanding how business requirements fit into the entire systems development effort. We also recommend that students attend Business Process Analysis before attending this class.
COURSE OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
- Define solution and transition requirements
- Review requirements categories and classifications
- Discuss the differences between business and functional requirements
- Discuss requirements implications based on the type of solution being developed (COTS, in house development, maintenance, BI)
- Learn about the software development approaches used by the team (change driven vs. plan driven) as it relates to solution requirements
DETERMINE THE SOLUTION SCOPE
- Define the solution scope model. Use approved business requirements to define a solution and allocate the solution components to each requirement (traceability)
- Learn a five-step approach to bringing the business domain stakeholders and implementation stakeholders to consensus about the definition of the solution scope
- Determine the functionality desired
- Elicit the business priority of each function
- Assess technical priority and estimated cost of the desired functionality
- Break project into phases or iterations
- Obtain approval
- Create a scope model using a use case diagram
- Define actors involved with the application
- Identify actor interactions
- Determine use cases within each phase or iteration
DESIGNING USER INTERFACES
- Learn to identify where prototypes are necessary
- Create and document prototypes
- Learn to document report requirements, including ad-hoc and predefined. Learn the definition of business intelligence
- Learn to document field edits and screen functionality
- Incorporate usability principals into user interfaces
DEFINING FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
- Learn to identify use cases
- Outline each use case for a high-level understanding of broad behavior
- Identify primary path, alternate path, and exception paths
- Decompose large use cases into smaller sub-sets, identifying reusable use cases where possible
- Learn how and where to document system user messages
- Learn to create detailed use case descriptions
ANALYZE INTERFACE REQUIREMENTS
- Identify required interfaces based on the phase/iteration plan
- Understand the most effective interface strategy for each design solution
- Write interface requirements for each interface
IDENTIFY NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
- Identify requirements not previously addressed by business, functional, or technical requirement categories
- Performance requirements
- Security requirements
- Quality requirements
- Scalability
- Consider which non-functional requirement types are important for your project
- Discuss the business analyst role in the development of these requirements
DEVELOP TRANSITION REQUIREMENTS
- Identify requirements for a smooth rollout of the solution to the business
- Consider scheduling and timing issues
- Determine the timing of interface transition and data conversion
- Consider parallel operations vs. cutover
- Develop an implementation plan
DEVELOP ACTION PLAN / COURSE SUMMARY WORKSHOP
- Review Business Analysis tasks and skills learned
- Workshop: What would you do? Determine analysis approach based on case study
- Develop an Action Plan with next steps on the student's current project