Package Visiabilty

[ShimonSim]

I have UC diagram with some packages on it. Packages have UCs in them. I can see UCs on the package and this is fine. But I have UC analysis that have activity elements. The problem is that they also show up in the package picture. I don't want that. I tried to go
Element Features > Specify Feature Visibility and played around with "Hide Stereotyped Features" field.
Didn't get any noticable results.

What should I do to solve my problem.
Thanks,
Shimon.

[mikewhit]

Well, I don't think that UC diagrams ought to have packages within them; the point of UCs is to represent the goals achieved by 'the system' for the Actor(s).

They really shouldn't be complicated enough to require much detailed structure, since they are just representing top-level 'jobs'.

Think 'more UC diagrams' rather than 'more detail'.

I myself aim for only a handful of UC bubbles on a diagram - some people make the mistake of attempting functional decomposition in a UC diagram, which should happen elsewhere since UCs are 'requirements/analysis level'.

To insert an Activity diagram 'inside' a UC diagram, you can click on the UC bubble on the Project View window then go New Child Diagram (type: Analysis or Activity).<corrected>

But you knew that !

Or I have completely misunderstood you!

[Bruno.Cossi]

Well, I don't think that UC diagrams ought to have packages within them; the point of UCs is to represent the goals achieved by 'the system' for the Actor(s).

They really shouldn't be complicated enough to require much detailed structure, since they are just representing top-level 'jobs'.

Think 'more UC diagrams' rather than 'more detail'.

I myself aim for only a handful of UC bubbles on a diagram - some people make the mistake of attempting functional decomposition in a UC diagram, which should happen elsewhere since UCs are 'requirements/analysis level'.

To insert an Activity diagram 'inside' a UC diagram, you can click on the UC bubble on the Project View window then go Insert Package, then inside the new package, New Diagram (type: Activity).

But you knew that !

Or I have completely misunderstood you!

Hi,

just out of curiousity, I can create a child activity diagram underneath a Use Case by right-clicking on it and selecting "New Child Diagram". I can't create a package underneath a Use Case. How have you done it? The option "Insert Package" does not appear in my context menu and if I click on the New Package button, it does not create a package underneath a Use Case but underneath the current package.

Having said that, I agree that too complex Use Case diagram with too deep a hierarchy will become unreadable by non-technical personnel and therefore sacrifice it's main value.

Bruno

[mikewhit]

Sorry Bruno - that was the approach I used for packaging Requirements - I will correct my posting so that people are not misled !

[Bruno.Cossi]

Not a problem, I was just curious whether I have missed something :-) Thanks.

[ShimonSim]

Well what happened there was kind of too many top level user casses so I decided to group them. I used packages to group them. So the main top level UC diagram has in the end few packges instead of 20 UCs. Each package has its own UC diagram.
I think this make sense.

But... is there a way to change the visibility of elements on the package picture.
Thanks

[Bruno.Cossi]

Hi Shimon,

I don't believe there is (occasionally I have longed for that feature, too). You can either hide or show all of the contents of a package, not selectively.

Bruno

[ShimonSim]

Thanks for saving me some time. I guess I will move out my analysis to other place.
Shimon.

[thomaskilian]

That's what I'm doing. I achieved good results with this structure: http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1097848319;start=4#4

[sargasso]

Shimon,

(To be high-church, you should change the diagram type of your original diagram to "Package".  Thus it is "allowed" to have packages in it.)

The way I handle this is ....
1. Use Case Drafting mode - stick all "500-odd" use cases in one diagram. Sort by name, remove insignificants and duplicates.
2. Rationalise the remaining "250-odd" use cases with the specifiers and move all those that are "unit functions" into a holding bay.
3. Go back to the specifiers and demand they rationalise the outcome of each of the remaining "100-odd" use cases to have a clear, concise and glossary consistent set of outcomes.
4. Review the output from 4. and combine all those use cases that are actually scenarios.  Now we are down to the manageable set of "10-50-odd" use cases
5. Create a (usually several) new composite structure diagrams to group the use cases for convenience.  Draft up the packages in these. (Several diagrams are frequently necessary to satisfy differnet audiences)
6. Link the use cases from step 4 into diagrams under these packages.

7. Analysis mode - now lets get tricky!
8. Change the UC under consideration to a composite element - this not only creates a child diagram but makes it a hyperlink.
9. Change the diagram type of the child diagram to activity/collab/seq/whatever you like and build the analysis.
10. Now the trick! Move the diagram and the analysis elements to another place in the project.  The hyperlink to the diagram is retained and you oriiginal packages no longer show thousands of elements!

hth
Bruce