6.23. Recommended Resources
The most popular use-case guide, translated into several languages, is Writing Effective Use Cases [Cockburn01].[7] This has emerged with good reason as the most widely read and followed use-case book and is therefore recommended as a primary reference. This introductory chapter is consequently based on and consistent with its content.
[7] Note that Cockburn rhymes with slow burn .
Patterns for Effective Use Cases by Adolph and Bramble in some ways picks up where Writing leaves off, covering many useful tipsin pattern formatrelated to the process of creating excellent use cases (team organization, methodology, editing), and how to better structure and write them (patterns for judging and improving their content and organization).Use cases are usually best written with a partner during a requirements workshop. An excellent guide to the art of running a workshop is Requirements by Collaboration: Workshops for Defining Needs by Ellen Gottesdiener.Use Case Modeling by Bittner and Spence is another quality resource by two experienced modelers who also understand iterative and evolutionary development and the RUP, and present use case analysis in that context."Structuring Use Cases with Goals" [Cockburn97] is the most widely cited paper on use cases, available online at alistair.cockburn.us .Use Cases: Requirements in Context by Kulak and Guiney is also worthwhile. It emphasizes the important viewpointas the title statesthat use cases are not just another requirements artifact, but are the central vehicle that drives requirements work.