Generalised link between actors

[NicoleL]

Hi,

I have a use case diagram where one actor inherits the use cases from another actor. The only problem is that the relationship between the inheriting actor and the use cases is not reflected in the documenation. I then have to go into the doco and put the actor in manually.

Is there something I need to change to get this relationship into the doco?

Thanks,
Nicole

[CJ]

G'day Nicole,

Although elements can show inherited attributes/properties/responsibilities/constraints/tags, I don't think EA supports showing inherited relationships.

Maybe something like the following can help, until somebody else comes up with a better suggestion:

Say you have actor "A" that is a generalization of actor "B".  Setup some use case diagram (1) with actor "B" associated to your use cases.  Then, in another diagram (2) to document actor "A", link actor "A" to "B" via generalization, and drag&drop diagram (1) onto diagram (2) as a "diagram frame".

Diagram (2) highlights the fact that "A" is a generalization of "B", and shows the uses cases that "A" is linked to (indirectly via "B").  Link "A" to use cases that are specific to "A", and now "A" is fully documented.

[thomaskilian]

Nicole,
I just wonder what you mean by "inheriting a use case". Inheritance normally work between classes (and relations?), not for use cases/actors. I guess what you mean is that one actor is a generalization of another one. You could draw a simple generalization between these two actors and set up constraints if the specialized only only associates certain use cases.