Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Constructing high quality use case models: a systematic review of current practices

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Requirements Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There is an increasing recognition for the need to develop high quality use case models from the professional and academic communities. Quality in use case models is of particular importance when they are utilized within a use case driven development process, whereby every aspect of development is driven by the models and influenced by their quality. Many practitioners and researchers have provided guidelines, suggestions and techniques to construct high quality use case models. This invaluable body of knowledge is disseminated across numerous literature resources. Without unifying this knowledge into one resource, it cannot be expected that a use case modeler would be fully aware of the entire body of knowledge and benefitting from it. This paper presents a systematic review that was conducted in order to identify and amalgamate this knowledge. The amalgamated knowledge is presented in a unified form, specifically as a set of 26 anti-patterns, which modelers can use to improve the quality of their models.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Ambler S (2002) Agile modeling: effective practices for extreme programming and the unified process. Wiley, London

    Google Scholar 

  2. Anda B, Sjøberg D (2002) Towards an inspection technique for use case models, In: Proceedings of the 14th international conference on software engineering and knowledge engineering

  3. Anda B, Sjøberg D, Jørgensen M (2001) Quality and understandability in use case models, In: Proceedings of 15th European conference object-oriented programming, Knudsen JL (ed) pp 402–428

  4. Anda B, Dreiem H, Sjøberg D et al. (2001) Estimating software development effort based on use cases—experiences from industry, fourth international conference on the unified modeling language

  5. Armour F, Miller G (2000) Advanced use case modeling. Addison-Wesley, Reading

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ben Achour C, Rolland C, Maiden N et al. (1999) Guiding use case authoring: results of an empirical study, In: Proceedings of IEEE symposium on requirements engineering

  7. Berenbach B (2004) The evaluation of large, complex UML analysis and design models, In: Proceedings of 26th international conference on software engineering, pp. 232–241

  8. Bittner K, Spence I (2002) Use case modeling. Addison-Wesley, Reading

    Google Scholar 

  9. Brown W, Malveau R, McCormick H et al (1998) Antipatterns, refactoring software, architectures and project crisis. Wiley, London

    Google Scholar 

  10. Chandrasekaran P (1997) How use case modeling policies have affected the success of various projects (or how to improve use case modeling), addendum to the conference on object-oriented programming, systems, languages, and applications

  11. Cockburn A (1995) Structuring use cases with goals, Tech. Rep. Human and Tech., 7691 Dell Rd, Salt Lake City, UT 84121, HaT.TR.95.1, http://members.aol.com/acockburn/papers/usecaes.htm

  12. Cockburn A (2000) Writing effective use cases. Addison-Wesley, Reading

    Google Scholar 

  13. El-Attar M (2011) Improving the quality of a biodiversity database system use case model using antipatterns—a case study. Available [Online] at http://www.steam.ualberta.ca/main/research_areas/MAPSTEDI%20Analysis.htm. Last accessed May 2011

  14. El-Attar M (2011) Improving the code crawler system use case model using antipatterns—a case study. Available [Online] at http://www.steam.ualberta.ca/main/research_areas/CodeCrawler%20Analysis.htm. Last accessed May 2011

  15. El-Attar M (2011) Improving the FAIN system use case model using antipatterns—a case study. Available [Online] at http://www.steam.ualberta.ca/main/research_areas/FAIN%20Analysis.htm. Last accessed May 2011

  16. El-Attar M (2011) Improving the quality of a supply chain management system use case model using antipatterns—a case study. Available [Online] at http://www.steam.ualberta.ca/main/research_areas/SCM%20Analysis.htm. Last accessed May 2011

  17. El-Attar M (2011) Examples of use case antipatterns (Online). Available at http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/ICS/melattar/UCAntipatterns.htm. Last updated Feb 2011

  18. El-Attar M, Miller J (2006) Matching antipatterns to improve the quality of use case models, 14th IEEE international requirements engineering conference

  19. El-Attar M, Miller J (2006) AGADUC: towards a more precise presentation of functional requirement in use case models, 4th ACIS international conference on software engineering, research, management and applications

  20. El-Attar M, Miller J (2008) Producing robust use case diagrams via reverse engineering of use case descriptions. Softw Sys Model 7(1):67–83

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. El-Attar M, Miller J (2009) A subject-based empirical evaluation of SSUCD's performance in reducing inconsistencies in use case models. Empir Softw Eng 14(5):477–512

    Google Scholar 

  22. El-Attar M, Miller J (2010) Improving the quality of use case models using antipatterns. Softw Sys Model 9(2):141–160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. El-Attar M, Miller J (2010) Developing comprehensive acceptance tests from use cases and robustness diagrams. Requir Eng 15(3):285–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Fabbrini F, Fusani M, Gnesi S et al. (2001) The linguistic approach to the natural language requirements quality: benefits of the use of an automatic tool,” In: Proceedings of the 26th annual NASA Goddard software workshop, pp 97–105

  25. Fantechi A, Gnesi S, Lami G et al. (2002) Application of linguistic techniques for use case analysis, In: Proceedings of IEEE joint international conference on requirements engineering, pp 157–164

  26. Firesmith DG (1999) Use case modeling guidelines, In: Proceedings of technology of object-oriented languages and systems

  27. Jacobson I, Ericsson M, Jacobson A (1995) The object advantage. ACM Press, New york

    Google Scholar 

  28. Kaner C, Bach J, Pettichord B (2003) Lessons learned in software testing. Wiley, New york

    Google Scholar 

  29. Khan KS, Ter Riet G, Glanville J et al. (2001) Undertaking systematic review of research on effectiveness, CRD’s guidance for those carrying out or commissioning reviews, CRD report number 4, second edn., NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York

  30. Kitchenham B (2004) Procedures for performing systematic reviews, Tech. Rep. TR/SE0401, Keele University and Tech. Rep. 0400011T.1, National ICT Australia Ltd

  31. Kulak A, Guiney E (2000) Use cases: requirements in context. Addison-Wesley, Reading

    Google Scholar 

  32. Lilly S (1999) Use case pitfalls: top 10 problems from real projects using use cases, In: Proceedings of technology of object-oriented languages and systems

  33. McCoy J (2003) Requirements use case tool (RUT). Companion of the 18th annual ACM SIGPLAN Conf. on object-oriented programming, systems, languages, and applications, pp 104–105

  34. Object Management Group (2005) UML superstructure specification, Object management group, Dec 2005, ver. 2.0 formal/05-07-04, 2005. (Online). Available: http://www.omg.org/docs/formal/05-07-04.pdf. Accessed Dec 2008

  35. Overgaard F, Palmkvist K (2005) Use cases patterns and blueprints. Addison-Wesley, Reading

    Google Scholar 

  36. Ren S, Rui K, Butler G (2003) Refactoring the scenario specification: a message sequence chart approach, In: Proceedings of 9th object-oriented information systems, pp 294–298

  37. Rui K, Butler G (2003) Refactoring use case models: The metamodel, In: Proceedings of 25th Computer Science Conference, Oudshoorn M (ed), pp 4–7

  38. Schneider G, Winters J (1998) Applying use cases–a practical guide. Addison-Wesley, Reading

    Google Scholar 

  39. Xu J, Yu W, Rui K, et al. (2004) Use case refactoring: a tool and a case study, In: Proceedings of the 11th Asia Pacific Software Engineering Conference, pp 484–491

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR) at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) for funding this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information and Computer Science, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Al-Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

    Mohamed El-Attar

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    James Miller

Authors
  1. Mohamed El-Attar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. James Miller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohamed El-Attar.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

El-Attar, M., Miller, J. Constructing high quality use case models: a systematic review of current practices. Requirements Eng 17, 187–201 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-011-0135-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-011-0135-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation