Chapter 10. The Case for Use Cases

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

”G EORGE B ERNARD S HAW

Use cases, as descriptions, have become very popular, ever since the first edition of our book. They have been applied in many ways that the original use case team may not have envisaged. They have certainly become the gold standard for capturing requirements for software applications.

Some people think use cases can be used for anything. Is it a hammer looking for a nail?

In this chapter, we summarize why we believe use cases are now so widely used as requirements artifacts for software. We also briefly explore some of the other ways use cases have been applied and how successful these uses have been. In particular, we focus on two areas: business use cases and service use cases.