The Computer Journal Advance Access originally published online on September 20, 2006
The Computer Journal 2007 50(1):116-128; doi:10.1093/comjnl/bxl053
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Describing Use-Case Relationships with Sequence Diagrams
Departamento de Lenguajes y Computación, Information Systems Group, University of Almeria 04120 Almeria, Spain
*Corresponding author: jalmen@ual.es
One of the key tools of the unified modelling language for behaviour modelling is the use-case model. The behaviour of a use case can be described by means of interaction diagrams (sequence and collaboration diagrams), activity charts and state diagrams or by pre-conditions and post-conditions, as well as natural language text, where appropriate. This article explains a technique to describe use cases by means of sequence diagrams. It compares sequence diagrams in order to define sequence-diagram relationships for identifying and defining use-case relationships. This article uses an automatic teller machine system case study to illustrate our proposal.
Key Words: UML • uses cases • activity diagrams • software modeling