Use Cases are an industry best practice for defining, documenting, and analyzing functional requirements. A use case approach is a user-centered approach for developing a solution to your business needs. Unfortunately, methods for developing use cases vary substantially across the industry. What information belongs in a use case? How can a use case be utilized to capture all the desired functionality? Are use cases applicable to all projects? Is there a template for writing use cases that is considered best practice? If you’ve ever been involved in a project involving use cases, you’ve probably encountered some confusing answers to these questions. Learn practical answers to these questions from one of the pioneers in Object Oriented Analysis. We have been developing and sharing best practices in use cases since the early 1990s.
This course provides a strong foundation in the mechanics of use case diagramming and writing textual descriptions of use cases. In this highly interactive workshop, you will learn how to enhance and refine your use case skills, how to involve your stakeholders in the use case process, and how to develop use cases that provide valuable information to the designers and testers. Use cases that meet the needs of designers can be too technical and too detailed for other stakeholders. Use cases that satisfy business users are usually not very helpful to designers and testers. How do you satisfy these two disparate interests? And how do you handle the details like business rules, data validations and user interface specifications?
All too often the software products delivered to the business do not meet their expectations, especially with regard to the quality of the product. An effective User Acceptance Testing (UAT) process addresses this issue by confirming the functionality and performance of the product prior to its release.
This workshop also looks at the business issues which drive the need for a fully functional UAT process and describes the components of such a process. It is designed to help the Business Analyst (BA) to develop an understanding of their role, the process, and the deliverables associated with UAT.
Audience Profile
This course has been expressly designed for the Business Analyst, Business System Analyst, System Analyst, and/or Requirements Engineer. The Designer, Developer and Tester who are actively involved in utilizing use cases may also benefit from this workshop.
This course is designed for the Business Analyst professional who is involved with testing the functionality of technology projects.
Student Testimonials
Instructor did a great job, from experience this subject can be a bit dry to teach but he was able to keep it very engaging and made it much easier to focus.
Student
Excellent presentation skills, subject matter knowledge, and command of the environment.
Student
Instructor was outstanding. Knowledgeable, presented well, and class timing was perfect.
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Prerequisites
Knowledge of requirements process and requirements elicitation techniques.
Detailed Class Syllabus
Module 1: Introduction
Course objectives
Understanding of business analysis
Knowledge areas of BABOK® Guide
Module 2: Overview of Use Cases
Describe the purpose and value of a use case approach
Use case terminology
Introducing a use case approach
Module 3: Needs Assessment
Purpose of Needs Assessment
Needs Assessment and use cases
Defining and understanding the strategic goals and objectives
Understanding the business process
Identifying actors
Identifying business information
Analyzing locations and operations
Drawing the business use case diagram
Building the business architecture
Defining solution options
Module 4: Defining System Scope
Product scope/project scope
System actors versus business actors
Analyzing the business process model
Analyzing business use cases
Identifying candidate use cases
Identifying scenarios
Diagramming use cases
Draw a use case diagram
Create a use case catalog
Module 5: Evaluating, Prioritizing, and Packaging Use Cases
Iterative nature of this work
Evaluating use cases
Use case priority
Use case risk
Use case complexity
Use case dependencies
Evaluate and Prioritize use cases
Dividing work up between releases
Packaging
A process for how to perform packaging
Module 6: Writing the main success scenario
Use case descriptions
Primary and secondary goals
Assumptions
Pre-conditions
Triggers
Post-conditions
Scenario example
Main success scenario
Conditional execution
Use cases and requirements
Best practices for writing a use case description
Module 7: Writing the other scenarios
Scenarios and flows
Alternate scenarios and flows
Alternate vs. basic flow
Guidelines for alternate flows
Exception flows
Failed post conditions
Write alternate and exception flows
Module 8: Process Modeling to describe use case flows
UML® Activity Diagram Notation
Sequencing activities
Developing an activity diagram
Facilitated sessions
Draw a UML® Activity Diagram
Module 9 Using Advanced Diagramming Techniques
Commonality
Dependency Relationships
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Identify <> and <> relationships
Comparing the different relationships
Module 10: Developing a Requirements Specification
Requirements and use cases
Detailed requirements
Common approaches to specifications
Non-functional requirements
Write non-functional requirements
User interface requirements
UI data descriptions
Business rules
Decision tables and inference rules
How to document simple calculations
Reporting requirements
Data requirements
Data accessibility requirements
Traceability
Module 11: Course Summary
Wrap-up
Finding more information
Module 12: Software Testing - the Basics
What is software testing and why is it important?
Typical problems that we encounter with software
The Cost of Quality (CoQ) and the cost of finding defects too late
The “V” Testing Model
The four stages of software testing (Unit, Integration, System, User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
Testing best practices
Exercise: “How would you test it?” – A new technology is presented to the participants and they are asked to brainstorm what should be tested to ensure it is working correctly. (15 minutes)
Module 13: Understanding the Tester’s Terminology
What is UAT and what is the role of the Business Analyst?
Characteristics of a good UAT tester
The tasks of UAT testing
The UAT documents
Common terms & definitions
The six testing types for UAT (i.e., smoke, functional, intersystem, usability, regression, stress/load testing)
The three testing techniques for UAT (i.e., control flow, parallel, and positive testing)
Testing visibility (White Box, Gray Box, and Black Box testing)
Exercise: UAT Jeopardy – A fun and fast-paced game of Jeopardy – used as a review of terms, concepts, and roles learned in this lesson. (15 minutes)
Module 14: The UAT Planning Process
The importance of UAT planning
What is a UAT Test Plan?
The six steps for creating a UAT Test Plan
General testing tips (see Testing Guidelines and Techniques document)
Exercise: “Create a UAT Test Plan” – The participants will identify UAT test scenarios from a Business Use Case and identify test objectives and high-level test data for each scenario
Module 15; UAT Test Coverage
What is UAT test coverage?
Using a Requirements Traceability Matrix
Set the testing scope – what to test and what not to test
The UAT Test Coverage Matrix
Verifying Non-functional requirements (i.e., performance, security, usability, availability, etc.)
Module 16: Creating and Executing the UAT Test Cases
What are the goals of UAT testing?
What is a UAT Test Case?
How do UAT Test Plans and Test Cases relate?
The four steps for creating a UAT Test Case
Exercise: “Write a UAT Test Case” – The participants will be asked to write a high-level Test Case from their Business Use Case and define test data for a portion of the steps
Preparing, running, and documenting the UAT Tests
General testing tips and techniques
Module 17: Verifying the Test Results
Documenting UAT test results
What is a defect?
How to log a defect?
The “bug” lifecycle
Writing a good problem description
Taking screen snapshots
10 tips to avoid writing bad defect reports
Exercise: “Log a defect” – The participants will write a concise and complete statement to explain a defect
Signing-off on UAT
Module 18: Testing Vendor-Supplied Applications
Challenges of testing vendor-supplied applications
Challenges to the business
Eight steps for testing vendor-supplied applications
Handout: An Insurance industry case study for testing vendor product