MAY 11, 2011 WRITING USE CASES IN AN AGILE WORLD KARL O’BRIEN SENIOR SOLUTIONS ENGINEER BLUEPRINT SYSTEMS

Introduction Karl O’Brien Senior Solutions Engineer with Blueprint working with the North East team 30+ Years Industry experience Certified SCRUM Master Experiences from being a Coder to Development Manager Last 10 years focused on Requirements

Agenda Use Cases ARE Agile…..No, really !! Agile Use Cases in Four Steps Step 1: Start with Actors, Goals and Descriptions Step 2: Write On Demand Step 3: Write Effective Steps Step 4: Adapt the Level of Precision

Use Cases ARE Agile…..No, really !! Are Use Cases Agile – The Ugly Cousin? Agile is an Attitude and an Approach Are Use Cases Agile? – Wrong Question

Use Cases ARE Agile…..No, really !!

Actors, Goals and Descriptions Who needs to use the thing we are about to build? Why do they need to use it?

Actors, Goals and Descriptions Create your first set of Use Cases Write a short description for each – Story Format  The [actor name] wants to [goal of use case] so that [reason for wanting to achieve that goal]  The guest user wants to create an account so that they can access the features available to registered users. Review Descriptions with Stakeholders

Write On Demand Less is More – Don’t do everything up front Prioritize Use Cases – Next Sprint Review with Developers Know when you have enough detail

Write Effective Steps Main Success Scenario – Be concise

Write Effective Steps Types of Steps Keep the writing lively Kind of StepExample System provides information to the actor System displays the search results System prompts the actorSystem asks member to accept invitation System does work on the actors behalf System sends request to payment processor Actor makes a choiceMember accepts invitation Actor provides information to the system Customer enters payment information

Write Effective Steps Omit details like:  The User Interface  The format of the data being passed  Business rules and formulas  Performance (and other non-functional) requirements If you do need to document such details, use the Use Case as a hub and hang the details off the use case, don’t imbed it into the steps (Traceability).

Adapt the Level of Precision Refrain from using Use Case Templates Be flexible about precision

Summary Use Cases CAN be Agile Don’t just write detail for the sake of writing it Review, review, review Beauty of not using Agile, is the surprise of finding out the project is failing after spending 80% of the budget.

Q&A Thank you for your attention. I’d be happy to take questions at this time.