[Year 12 SofDev] Use Case dilemma (s)

Tue Nov 23 22:06:15 EST 2010

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the attachment and the explanations. It will help many of us trying to come to terms with the expectations of the Use Case diagrams for the course.
The problem arises when there are multiple sources explaining the same term .
I take it you feel the examples in the attached sample are not valid use cases namely, eat food, drink wine, cook wine ?

We will continue our discussion....
BTW do you have anything similar for SRS's ? I can get the whole IEEE Std 830-1998 standard but was wondering how much information and to what level of detail a SAC would require a SRS .
Eg. A key knowledge and a key skill  in AOS 31 respectively are
  . composition of an SRS and purposes of documenting an analysis in this form and
. write an SRS to document the requirements, constraints and scope .

Quoting from the SRS standard document:
4. Considerations for producing a good SRS
a) Nature of the SRS;
b) Environment of the SRS;
c) Characteristics of a good SRS;
d) Joint preparation of the SRS;
e) SRS evolution;
f) Prototyping;
g) Embedding design in the SRS;
h) Embedding project requirements in the SRS.

In addition the Parts of an SRS are listed as :
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Purpose
1.2 Scope
1.3 Definitions, acronyms, and abbreviations
1.4 References
1.5 Overview
2. Overall description
2.1 Product perspective
2.2 Product functions
2.3 User characteristics
2.4 Constraints
2.5 Assumptions and dependencies
3. Specific requirements (See 5.3.1 through 5.3.8 for explanations of possible
specific requirements. See also Annex A for several different ways of organizing
this section of the SRS.)

I notice in the assessment handbook for Outcome 31 ( Unit 3, Outcome 1 ) the reference to SRS covers one criterion worth 5 marks out of 40
. Production of a Software Requirements Specification in which the functional and non-functional requirements, scope and constraints are documented using appropriate tools p42  Assessment handbook<http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vcaa/vce/studies/infotech/infotechhb-2011-2014.doc>

It would be really nice to have one sample SRS at the standard and content as required for SAC31 to make sense of that otherwise seems a really long report of a few dozen or more pages at this stage.

With thanks
Kevork

From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Timmer-Arends
Sent: Tuesday, 23 November 2010 6:02 PM
To: Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] Use Case dilemma (s)

Hello Kevork

arrow directions make sense for both include and extend if you think of them as saying "this extends that" - "this" being the tail-end and "that" being the use case pointed at. So, for example, "order wine extends food order" - in other words it adds to its functionality. You can do the same for includes - unfortunately your example doesn't have one.

As for the association with data, DFDs and use cases are not the same and don't serve the same purpose. Use cases are about the system doing something useful for the user and I guess the wikipedia example is trying to illustrate this without getting too technical (??). I imagine if we are talking about an information system then it a use case would ordinarily involve information in some way

 For what its worth, I have attached a doc I prepared some time ago in preparation for the new SD.

Regards
Robert T-A
----- Original Message -----
From: Kevork Krozian<mailto:kevork at edulists.com.au>
To: 'Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List'<mailto:sofdev at edulists.com.au>
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2010 8:24 AM
Subject: [Year 12 SofDev] Use Case dilemma (s)

Hi folks,

I have attached a Use Case from Wikipedia and also used in Mark's brilliant online notes. I have discussed it with contacts at tertiary level and there is uncertainty about the representations.
Firstly, there are a number of use cases within the system that do not have any data processing yet appear eg. Eat food, cook food, drink wine.

Thinking back to DFDs each process has to have data processing underpinning eg. Deliver order is not a valid process unless there is a data component such as deliver invoice OR pay invoice or transfer money is not a process unless it is to request receipt or update invoice.
I hope I am making sense. The consensus is that these use cases are not part of the system.

Secondly, the arrows on includes and extends are in reverse positions . Has anyone given any thought as to why that is ??

Speak soon

Kevork Krozian
Edulists Creator Administrator
www.edulists.com.au
tel: 0419 356 034

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