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What is a use case description (specification)?

cadams5 — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:28:00 GMT

A use case description (also known as use case specification) is the textual documentation of an interaction with a business process or IT system in order to achieve something of value (a goal). There are two common formats used for creating use case descriptions. One is the narrative form which describes the interaction in paragraphs, much like telling a story. The other is the dialogue or conversational form, which describes the interaction just as two people might have dialogue, i.e., the actor does A, then the system does B in response.

While it may vary by organization, a use case description typically contains the following:

- Use Case Name

- Brief Description

- Pre-Conditions

- Main Flow of Events

- Alternative Flows

- Exception Flows

- Post Conditions

What is a use case diagram?

cadams5 — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:21:00 GMT

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What is a use case?

cadams5 — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:18:00 GMT

A use case is a representation of an interaction between business worker and a business process or a user and an IT system in order to achieve something of value (a goal). Use cases are the ovals that appear in a use case diagram. A use case and a use case description or specification are different. While use cases represent an interaction (usually with a simple verb-noun phrase) use case descriptions/specifications describe the interaction in detail form.

Use cases can be subdivided into business use cases and system use cases. Business use cases represent the interaction between a business actor and a business process in order to achieve a goal, while system use cases represent the interaction between a system actor, which can be a system user or another system, and an IT system in order to achieve something of value.

What is CRUD?

adrian — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 22:49:00 GMT

CRUD stands for:

Create,
Read,
Update,
Delete.

These are the four basic functions that can be performed when working with data in a persistent storage.

It also refers to operations that a user can perform using a given feature. With the exception of workflow, most business applications deal exclusively with user interfaces which allow the user to either create (enter), read (view), update (edit), or delete data.

Do you feel UML models, or other types of models, have any value once the implementation code has been generated? Why?

cadams5 — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 22:34:00 GMT

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Would you use a sequence diagram or an activity diagram to model a process flow that has lot of conditional flows and concurrent processing?

cadams5 — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 22:28:00 GMT

Modeling of processes that contain a lot of conditional flows and concurrent processing is typically done using an activity diagram. Showing decision points with multiple outcomes and parallel processes is not only easy to accommodate using the standard UML activity diagram, it is more readily understood by an audience that doesn't have a detailed understand of the UML notation. It's intuitive.

While UML 2.0 incorporates significant improvements over prior versions for supporting conditional processes, parallel processes and loops, using these features tend to be a little more cumbersome without the help of a very specialized or easy to use tool. In addition, the notation is not quite as intuitive to the untrained document reviewer.

What techniques have you used to elicit business requirements?

adrian — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 22:25:00 GMT

There are a number of methods or eliciting and discovering requirements. These methods can be categorized into two main categories:

Collaborative Interaction - these methods offer the most access to the customer and result in more accurate requirements (though they may be more time intensive/expensive):

Face-to-face Interviews
Focus Groups
Requirements Workshop
Brainstorming and Idea Reduction
Role Playing

Restricted Interaction - these methods control more strictly the way in which you interact with the stakeholders:

Observation and Job Shadowing
Prototype Walkthroughs
Questionnaires
Electronic Interviews
Legacy Code Analysis (Reverse Engineering)
Reading

What is a business entity model?

cadams5 — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:17:00 GMT

A business entity model is a logical model that documents the entities, or things, that a business or business process uses and interacts with in order to accomplish its business activities and goals. In addition to documenting entities, a business entity model may capture the attributes of an entity, relationships between entities, and cardinality information. Many business entity models are created in the form of a UML class diagram. However, it is important to note that business entity models document the logical structure of a business domain, not the physical structure.

The information captured by the business entity model is helpful in later stages of the software development process when class diagrams and database schemas are being designed. This is where logical information begins to be transformed into a physical implementation.

What do you do to increase your value as an analyst?

adrian — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:12:00 GMT

Most analysis managers and recruiters who are serious about hiring quality business analysts or systems analysts want to know that you are driven and interested in constantly increasing your knowledge and skills.

You want to be able to demonstrate to them that, outside of the employer required activities, you take the initiative to continue learning.

Here are some things that you can do (before the interview) and which will help you give a good and truthful answer:

participate in networking groups for business/systems analysts (ex: a local IIBA chapter),
join and become and active member of an on-line community of business analysts,
build your brand: write articles, create blog entries, discuss issues related to business analysis topics - this will showcase your skills and knowledge,
mentor junior analysts and other team members,
read books for business analysts (see: Modern Analyst Bookstore),
consider taking a course to refresh and complement your business systems analysis skills (see: List of Training Courses).

Is there anything in RUP that you would change in order to improve the efficiency of the system development process?

cadams5 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:22:00 GMT

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What is the difference between a business use case and a system use case?

cadams5 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:20:00 GMT

A business use case describes the interaction between an actor and a business process with no mention of systems. When writing a business use case, it is irrelevant whether the business process being described is completed by the actor manually or by interfacing with a system. The focus is on the business process and how the actor interacts with it.

A system use case describes the interaction between an actor and an IT system.

In RUP business modeling, what is the difference between a Business Actor and a Worker?

cadams5 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:17:00 GMT

A business actor is someone external to the business. This could be a supplier, a distributor, a customer, etc. A business actor is often described within the context of interacting with a business process.

A worker (also referred to as a business worker) is someone who works within the business. A business worker is also often described within the context of interacting with a business process.

If you are introduced to a new industry, what steps do you take to become familiar with it and understand it?

cadams5 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:43:00 GMT

Creating a business entity model can really help increase the pace at which analysts, or anyone else for that matter, come up to speed in a new business industry. Business entity models document the entities, or things, that a business or business process uses and interacts with in order to accomplish its business activities and goals. Therefore, it is an excellent tool for identifying the scope of the business domain and for providing a framework from which the analyst can continue to build and elaborate to increase their knowledge. It helps the analyst quickly identify not only those things that they know about the business but also those things that they don't know about the business.

What is BPMN?

cadams5 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:37:00 GMT

Answer:
BPMN stands for Business Process Modeling Notation. BPMN is an industry standard that provides businesses with the capability of visualizing and communicating their internal business processes and their external business to business processes in a standard manner. Beyond the obvious use of modeling business processes, BPMN has been created with the key goal of creating a bridge between the business process modeling notation (BPMN) and IT-oriented execution languages that will implement the modeled business processes within a business process management system. This is done by maintaining and supporting a strict internal model that maps the rich set of graphical objects and object attributes of BPMN to executable languages such as the Business Process Execution Language for Webs Services (BPEL4WS) or Business Process Modeling Language (BPML) to support immediate execution of modeled buiness processes.

What is UML?

cadams5 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:27:00 GMT

UML stands for Unified Modeling Language. UML is an industry standards used to assist analysts and programmers with developing scalable, extendable, maintainable, secure, and robust applications. Large systems tend to be very complex and structure is one way of dealing with complexity. UML provides a common language for analysts and programmers throughout the IT industry to organize and structure complex systems in a way that can be understood by everyone involved. It allows IT professionals to specifiy, visualize, and document models of a software system, both structurally and behaviorally.

Name a few of the industry standards, methodologies, or best practices used by business analysts and systems analysts?

cadams5 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:57:00 GMT

-UML

-BPMN

-RUP

What are the most relevant UML diagrams for Systems Analysts?

cadams5 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:49:00 GMT

While opinions may vary based on the role of the Systems Analyst from organization to organization, the following UML diagrams are probably the most predominantly used by Systems Analysts:

-Class Diagram

-Use Case Diagram

-Package Diagram

-Activity Diagram

-Sequence Diagram

-State Machine Diagram

-Communication Diagram

What are the most relevant UML diagrams for Business Analysts?

cadams5 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:43:00 GMT

While opinions may vary based on the role of the Business Analyst from organization to organization, the following UML diagrams are probably the most predominantly used by Business Analysts:

-Class Diagram

-Use Case Diagram

-Activity Diagram

-Sequence Diagram

Name and describe the different categories of UML diagrams.

cadams5 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:37:00 GMT

There are 3 categories of UML Diagrams:

Structure Diagrams: Diagrams that model elements of a business domain or system irrespective of time.

Behavior Diagrams: Diagrams that model the functional or behavioral aspects of a system or business process. These diagrams place less emphasis on detailed interactions and focus more on the overall functionality and flow of a business process or system.

Interaction Diagrams: A subset of behavior diagrams, these diagrams place a heavy emphasis on the interactions between object of a business process or system.

What UML diagrams are available to analysts and developers?

cadams5 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:21:00 GMT

UML 2.0 contains 13 different diagrams (up from 9 in the previous versions of UML) that can be grouped into 3 different categories. These categories are:

1. Structure Diagrams

2. Behavior Diagrams

3. Interaction Diagrams

There are 6 Structure Diagrams which include:

-Class Diagram

-Object Diagram

-Component Diagram

-Composite Structure Diagram

-Package Diagram

-Deployment Diagram

There are 3 Behavior Diagrams which include:

-Use Case Diagram

-Activity Diagram

-State Machine Diagram

There are 4 Interaction Diagrams which include:

-Sequence Diagram

-Communication Diagram

-Timing Diagram

-Interaction Overview Diagram

Who uses the output produced by a systems analyst?

cadams5 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:18:00 GMT

-System Users of a New System: The systems analyst may gather requirements, define use cases, and create process flows that describe the functionality of a new system that the system users must read, understand, and approve.

-Programmers: The business analyst may use the gathered requirements, use cases, and create process flows to write functional specifications and sometimes even technical specs that the programmers will use to understand the intent of the new system and ultimately write the code.

Who uses the output produced by a business analyst?

cadams5 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:00:00 GMT

-Business Management and Executives: The business analyst may create a model of current business processes to identify areas where Business Process Improvement or Business Process Re-Engineering might make sense.

-Business Workers: The business analyst may create a model of current business processes to convey to business workers how their role fits into the larger business process and the other groups that are dependent upon them for information.

-System Users of a New System: The business analyst may gather requirements and define use cases that describe the functionality of a new system that the system users must read, understand, and approve.

-Systems Analyst: The business analyst may gather requirements, define use cases, create process flows, etc., to document system requirements from which systems analysts can write functional specifications.