Gen/Spec with Use Cases and how to proceed?

[hglathe]

Hi,

I have several generalizations/specializations in my use case diagrams of an EA UML model.
Know I want go into more detail by attatching activities and actions to each use case.

If I have an abstract use case UC1 which is specialized by two use cases UC2 and UC3. How can activities of UC2 and UC3 hook into the general acitivity flow of UC1?
Is there a official way to do that and how to do that with EA?
I ask, because I cannot find a wa to define an abstract activity in UC1 and specialize it in UC2 and UC3 different.

Thanks in advance, Helko

[Geert Bellekens]

Helko,

My opinion is
- Try to avoid use case inheritance if possible.
- If you can't avoid it then I would keep the abstract use case as light as possible, only define a description, pre-post conditions, but I would probably not start with scenario's, but only define them on the concrete use cases.

I don't think there's a 'official' way of specifying which parts of the parent use case you are 'overriding'. It is probably the most clear of yo u describe the full set of scenarios on the concrete use case, even if that means you have to copy/past parts of it.

Don't forget, the use cases you are writing are meant to be interpreted by humans, not a compiler.

Geert

[hglathe]

Hi,
thanks for your reply. I hoped that the UML spec provides gen/spec between activities or actions.
I know use cases are to be read by humans but it's maybe very redundant.
However, good to know that this topic has not been thought to the end.
I will avoid gen/spec for use cases.

Thanks again, Helko

[Robert de Wolff]

Hi,

I always say: do not use generalization or specialization for use cases. I do have some solutions to your problem. Do you have some examples of cases where you are using spec/gen now? It depends on the cases which solution i would suggest.