Developing Applications with Java™ and UML

Shadow Use-Cases

Traditionally, use-cases have been viewed from the eyes of the business—that is, the user. In many application domains, however, some use-cases are never properly accounted for. These represent areas of functionality that meet all of the criteria of use-cases but that often have more meaning to the IT staff, which is their “user.” The business sponsor might acknowledge them but often underestimates their impact on the application and the estimated time to completion. These use-cases often end up being budget busters.

I call these shadow use-cases because they are not given their due respect in most applications. Figure 4-4 shows the most common shadow use-cases found across all application domains: Security, Audit, Parameter ...