Use Case Survey

Use case survey is a list of names and perhaps brief descriptions of use cases associated with a system, component, or other logical or physical entity. This artifact is short and inexpensive to produce early in the analysis or envisioning stages of a software development project.

There are a wide array of different process models for software development. Some processes, like the Rational Unified Process, define clear goals for creating the Use Case Survey, while other processes do not mention this artifact at all.

In practice, the use case survey can be valuable for the following reasons:

1. By creating a single list of the use cases, the analyst effectively creates a detailed list of potential scope items for one or more projects. This provides an excellent introduction to the business problem for those individuals who need to learn the context of a project.
2. With a single list of use cases, an analyst can work with business customers to determine if the elements of business process change envisioned by the tools is sensible, long before prototypes or wire-frames would be useful.
3. The fact that the use case survey is inexpensive to produce and is fairly easy to understand makes it less difficult to change. No one, including the analyst, is heavily invested in the effort that produces this artifact.
4. The use case survey is not the scope of the project per se. It is intended to be the scope of the business problem. As a result, each of the aspects of the business problem can be weighed for priority and considered by different stakeholders before the project scope is actually decided. This helps form common consensus and reduces a potential cause of friction later.
5. The survey itself can be viewed as a holistic view of the business problem. This is a useful tool for analysis because each of the stakeholders can review the list to make sure that their processes are captured and described. Gaps can be easily identified before the project scope is finalized and costs are estimated. This reduces the chance that a project will deliver a solution for one stakeholder that creates an expensive problem for another.
6. Senior Application Developers, over time, build up the experience needed to create valid estimates of project development cost. By presenting a use case survey to a Senior Developer, a richer understanding of the business problem can be communicated than by most other mechanisms. This allows the developer to produce more accurate and reliable estimates and to provide better development assumptions.

The use case survey is a practical way to gather user requirements for most types of business software development including rapid application development but may be less useful for needs such as game development.