I have many processes in my usecase , is this normal ?

Question

Hi, I'm working now on a big system that consists of many subsystems , each subsystem depends on the other. I wrote a usecase for this system , but I note that I have many processes in my usecase ( more than 40 processes ! ) . it looks like this :

• Group subsystem:
  • add Group.
  • remove Group.
  • join to Group.
  • upload file.
  • create poll.
  • remove file.
  • remove poll.
  • write post/topic
  • close post.
  • edit post.
  • ....
• Messages Centers
  • send message
  • view inbox
  • read message.

and so on ..

this is a screenshot, just to know that is a large usecase :) http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1308/4691773979_4c5a30f26c_b.jpg

each user interacts with these processes .

• How can I reduce the number of these processes?
• Is it possible to divide the usecase processes into many pages?

Answer 1

I'm not sure of what you meant by dividing it into many pages but you can certainly divide it into multiple use cases, or multiple subsystems... but is it worth it?

Use cases, as far as I know(which isn't much), are used to show clearly what kind of interactions an user can make with a system, or even a system with another system. It is possible to produce a comprehensive use case with only one system having all these options, but it is also possible to do it while separating everything into smaller subsystems.

I would suggest you use whatever you're more comfortable with, as long as whoever need to see that diagram can have a clear idea of how each actors interacts together.

Furthermore, if you're working on uses cases, chances are you've made a package diagram/list before. If you did, you could simply do one use case for each package.

Answer 2

Your terminology isn't quite right.

From the picture, that's not ONE use case.

That's dozens of use cases. Each oval is a separate use case. Each box is a separate system. You're showing 7 systems with 32 use cases.

Read this: http://www.agilemodeling.com/artifacts/useCaseDiagram.htm

I don't know what you think a "process" is. Guessing from your picture, each thing you're calling a "process" is a use case. An actor interacts with the system to create something of value.

Since you've got the terminology wrong, it's difficult to say if it's "normal". It is quite common, however, to get the terminology wrong.

Answer 3

It is possible to divide in several pages. You can divide the diagram according to the actors. So you can have one actor and all use cases associated that that actor in one page. Try to analyze if its necessary to include all the use cases in the diagram, but of course this depends for what and who are you ding this diagram.

Answer 4

You should group your use case. For example create a use case "Manage Group" which would include the 3 use cases:

add Group.
remove Group.
join to Group.

You can then choose the granularity of your view to show details or not.

See other examples here:

taken from http://askuml.com/blog/yuml-use-case/