[RESOLVED] Where can I get use case help? - I know its not PHP :(

[shure2]

Hi,
Seeing as you guys are so helpful, I wondered if anyone knows of a forum that could help me with my use case diagram.

I have a system that I built in PHP and now I want to draw a use case. I can manage customers, companies and their products, leads and reports by adding, editing and deleting them all. A lead needs to be created from the customer and products information which can then be put into a report.

A screen shot of the use case is here: http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4020/usecasediagram.png

I've had a look for some UML / use case forums but they seem dead 🙁

[laserlight]

Err... what exactly are you trying to do?

[shure2]

laserlight;10950576 wrote:

Err... what exactly are you trying to do?

I wanted to know if you guys think the use case looks ok.

Since then I have removed the use cases that say manage as I think they just make it messy with the includes lines. Instead I have add customer, edit customer, delete customer, add company, edit company etc.

If you guys don't know much about use cases (which is completely fair as this is a php forum!) then does anyone know of any well used UML / use case forums?

[Weedpacket]

Usually use cases come from the users and what they're going to be doing with the application, hence the name.

[NogDog]

shure2;10950583 wrote:

I wanted to know if you guys think the use case looks ok.

Since then I have removed the use cases that say manage as I think they just make it messy with the includes lines. Instead I have add customer, edit customer, delete customer, add company, edit company etc.

If you guys don't know much about use cases (which is completely fair as this is a php forum!) then does anyone know of any well used UML / use case forums?

You could instead clean it up by extending a more generalized use case (see attachment)

[Weedpacket]

Ah; I forgot to add the second sentence; roughly what NogDog suggested, but at right angles (in other words, it was exactly the same but completely different): rather than a generic "Manager" class I had a generic "CRUD" class, viewing users from the perspective of what they can do with the information in the system (create/retrieve/update/delete) rather than from their role in the company.

I reckon such a mapping would come in at some point: it would, for example, unify the "Management" roles with the "Report Generation" role (since managers also need to be able to generate reports). Another role would be that of the clerical worker who can edit records but not add or delete them; or the data-entry operator who can only add with only limited scope for editing.

But I think I'm waffling again.

[NogDog]

PS: I should have added a caveat that I'm no use case expert. I attended a few seminars years ago on Rational Rose and have been exposed to some of this at other times, too, but I've never really gotten immersed into it. (I mainly dealt with test cases, not use cases, as I was on the testing side, not the design side of things.)