Abstract

Two important aspects of future software engineering techniques will be the ability to seamlessly move from analysis models to design models and the ability to model dynamic systems where scenarios and structures may change at runtime. Use Case Maps (UCMs) are used as a visual notation for describing causal relationships between responsibilities of one or more use cases. UCMs are a scenario-based software engineering technique most useful at the early stages of software development. The notation is applicable to use case capturing and elicitation, use case validation, as well as high-level architectural design and test case generation. UCMs provide a behavioural framework for evaluating and making architectural decisions at a high level of design. Architectural decisions may be based on performance analysis of UCMs. UCMs bridge the gap between requirements and design by combining behaviour and structure in one view and by flexibly allocating scenario responsibilities to architectural components. They also provide dynamic (run-time) refinement capability for variations of scenarios and structure and they allow incremental development and integration of complex scenarios. Therefore, UCMs address the issues mentioned above.

-- Jason Kealey - 12 Oct 2005

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