Always Write Effective Use Cases
March 21, 2019
Intro
It’s been over a year since I’ve attended Ironhack Miami (1/18-3/18) & i’ve learned a considerable amount during that period of time. In my first post I discussed my time there learning web development and was inspired for building this blog to talk about my experiences. Most of my posts are tech related but in future ones I plan to explore other topics as well. After Ironhack, I landed a full-time job as a web developer & have been working hard every day to be the best that I can. Software is a career I really enjoy, the days are never dry. Some days are incredibly difficult but with anything in life if you persevere you can achieve success.
Most of the projects I work on deal with the front-end of applications. For one of my company’s recent projects, I was tasked with creating UX/UI mockup proposals of software we are developing for a new client. This is a good time to talk about writing use cases. An important topic in agile software development.
Why write use cases?
I ended up producing a considerable amount of mockup proposals and in the process came across the topic of writing use cases. I decided to go ahead and write several for what the system was trying to complete. After coming up with a few use cases for the application, I noticed that it made the process of actually writing code a lot more straightforward. I had a written explanation as to what our end users wanted and was able to keep within a guideline to refer back to. Writing use cases does not have to be a formidable task in the software development process. Taking the time out to write them could and should make the process less complicated. A concern with use case writing is articulating the components. That seems to just come with prose writing in general. This shouldn’t be too much of a concern as just simply writing them and practicing; you will be doing your company/organization a service.
Types
Use cases can come in different forms, I opted for writing them alongside the mockup proposals I created with the design software I use in text-format. There are other methods of creating them and as for which ones are better it really a matter of opinion. Some of the methods of use case writing include…
Flow Charts
Text-form
Sequence Charts
Programming Languages
Petri nets
A use case example
The use cases I usually opt for are like the one above in text format and contain all information necessary to convey what the software is trying to complete. Effective use case writing should contain the overall scope, actors, level of the goal trying to complete, and stakeholders. I’ve realized to get better at writing use cases it takes a lot of practice. Well written use cases contain a structure that is easy to read by the team and contains simple actionable steps. It needs to convey enough meaning without being too overwhelming.
Benefit
What I found to be the primary benefit of writing out use cases is that it sparked a thorough discussion among my team. Companies would benefit by not having to constantly go back to the drawing board after finding out the software being built is not exactly what the client is expecting. It is an overall good strategy to implement this into the workflow of development. Use cases can eject the pain of rebuilds and may capture the essence of the stakeholder.
Personal blog by Alex Virdee, 