I will be talking about how to create compelling use case models at Bristol on 27th July. Ian Richards from Fujitsu will also be talking about Requirements Estimation. This is the latest event for the IIBA Southwest branch and I hope those of you living in the UK who are local will be able to [...] Read more »
FREE white paper – Demystifying use cases – is here
This is just a quick post to let you know I have finished my white paper – Demystifying Use Cases. Let friends and colleagues who would be interested know about it – I want lots of feedback to see how it can be improved. What’s it about? Fill out your name and email address below [...] Read more »
How Business Analyst Mentor will help your professional development in 2010
After considering all the valuable input from Business Analyst Mentor readers I described in last week’s post, I had to decide how to support the readers. It wasn’t straightforward as I have to balance the investment of my time and money, especially when you consider that I work full time and have a family! Once I had the [...] Read more »
The key to successful communication as a business analyst
I have been researching current thinking on online training. It has really opened my eyes to effective methods for engaging and communicating with others. This article explains some best practice principles for communication. Ok, imagine you’re a project manager and your business analyst says: this task is really difficult. I’m not sure how long it [...] Read more »
Why use use cases?
This article explores when use case modelling can be used, when it shouldn’t be used and the benefits. When to apply use case modelling Use case modelling was originally created to provide a business or user-friendly way of modelling requirements for system behaviour (see – an Introduction to Use Cases). It applies to systems which [...] Read more »
Use cases – how to ensure the perfect use case (almost)
It sometimes seems that use case modeling is more art than science (like much of the tricky bits of business analysis, see Use cases – an Introduction for the basics). There are many different viewpoints on what makes a good use case. Some of those viewpoints are undoubtedly wrong, some of them are just different! [...] Read more »
Review of Writing effective use cases by Alistair Cockburn
I reviewed this book as I believe there is little out there in the way of training or guidance on how to do use case modeling well. This is one of the few books that has a specific use case focus. Author Alistair Cockburn is a name you will come across if you spend any [...] Read more »
How to identify candidate use cases
This article will define a candidate use case. It will identify the resources you can use as the source material to identify your use cases. It will also explain what techniques you can apply to generate source material. Finally it will explain how you can validate your candidate use cases. Definition A candidate use [...] Read more »
Requirements gathering alongside use cases
In this article, I’ll be discussing some other requirements gathering methods that complement use case modeling and should be used to ensure your requirements gathering goes swimmingly (see Use Cases – an Introduction for more on use case modeling). In particular, I’ll be mentioning storyboards, wireframes and prototypes. I’ll also cover what level of quality and [...] Read more »
What comes before the use case model?
This article puts use cases into context by exploring where they sit within a project. Various methods for validating them within the wider context are also discussed. It also discusses what other techniques can or should be used in conjunction with them. If you want to see the how a project fits into the larger [...] Read more »
