Geri Winters
Summary
"Applying Use Cases: A Practical Guide" is the first book written on the topic of Use Cases. It has been called "the missing link between Unified Process and UML". Starting with a description of what a use case is, Schneider and Winters explore how to create and make use of Use Cases throughout the software development lifecycle.
Chapter 10 includes a paper by Gustav Karner showing how to estimate work with Use Case Points (a variation on Function Points).
FAQ's
I recognize one of the stories. It was a team at my company!
Yes and no. Any story I share is a composite of probably a dozen or more teams at many different companies who all had the same problem, solution, or behavior. I see the same things over and over, and so even if I never worked at your company, the story will probably be familiar to you.
I thought everything was user stories now. Does anyone actually write use cases anymore?
User stories are really the first, most basic form of a use case. The only difference between a user story - as a user I want this feature so I get that value - and a use case - this actor wants this feature - is the statement of value in the user story.
As teams work with user stories, they tend to add preconditions and postconditions - given (precondition), when (user story), then (postcondition). That is exactly the second form of a Use Case.
And finally, when teams write scenarios (test cases), this is exactly the same thing as writing the happy path and alternative paths of a Use Case. So anything you learn about writing and using good Use Cases can be applied directly to writing and using good user stories.
What inspired you to write this book?
I (Geri) was teaching classes on Rational Unified Process and my students asked me if there were any books on the topic. At the time, there were no books on how to write and make use of Use Cases. They asked me if I would write one. I said I would, then asked Jason to help me with it because I thought he would have some good insights.
I talked with Jim Rumbaugh about how to get a book published, and he put me in touch with his publisher who was looking for a book on Use Cases. There was such a need, the book was an instant hit, easily outselling books on Java and software design. It continues to sell well after almost 20 years in the USA, Europe, Japan, and Poland, and is used as a text book in a large number of universities.
What do you think of other Use Case books on the market?
I think all the use case books have some good things to say. We are all essentially discussing the same thing, so differences between the books are pretty minor really.
I have had some really good feedback over the years from some odd places. The IIBA contacted me at one point to say my book was one of their primary references when writing the original BABOK, so that kind of makes me and Jason parents of the field of Business Analysis.
A company that had a product to scan natural language and create UML activity diagrams said my analysis approach to use cases was the only one to produce use cases that could be scanned. So they were using my book to teach classes on how to write use cases to their customers.
Then just a few years ago, an Agile consultant told me he had purchased hundreds of copies of "Applying Use Cases" to teach Agile teams how to work in an Agile manner. So "Applying Use Cases" has quietly had quite an influence on software development.
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