Worksheet for M&S BOK ‘Use Case’ Workshop at ASTC April 2004
STEP 1 – Form Working Groups Objective: Organize the Working Group into Teams with common roles with respect to M&S BOK usage Activity: All participants self-subscribe to ‘Government’, ‘Education’, ‘Industry’ or ‘Professional Society’ roles Q: Are you acting as an agent of the Government? An Educational institution? Private industry, or one of the Professional Societies such as SCS, SISO, IEEE, etc.? A: Group volunteers into 3-5 person Teams Q: Who is on your team? A:
Guidance Select one or another of your several roles for the ‘game’ Note: many of you have several roles. For consistency sake, your convenience in ‘acting-out’ the role and our convenience in interpreting the results of the Use-Case ‘game’, you need to choose some specific role posture. Be flexible, other specialized roles are welcome Note if Govt, Edu, etc don’t provide you enough latitude you can define your own role in the next section. Remember, however that it’ll help awfully if the whole team assumes the same role identity Product: Team membership lists, n teams of 3-5 members
STEP 2 – Identify Role Perspective Objective: Establish a consensus appreciation of the ‘user role’ that the Team will adopt and use for the game Note that a role is normally defined as: – the named designation of a relationship which may be assigned-to or assumed-by an individual with respect to some function or organizational entity. Role is intended to imply requisite authority and concomitant responsibility to execute the associated functions or to act successfully in relation to the designated organizational entity. [Webster..."a part or character assumed by anyone."] [alternatively…The named relationship which a person has to an organization. A position. No need to be that formal here – more like ‘who are you’, ‘what do you do’ and ‘how might you use the M&SBOK if it were available today to do your job’? Activity: Discuss role variants Q: What alternatives are there for your role? What do you care about? What doesn’t matter to you? Any special conditions, constraints, opportunities associated with the subject role? A:
Capture role attributes, attitudes, interests, needs Q: What attributes attitudes, interests needs etc. have you agreed characterize your team’s role? Namely, what are you responsible to ‘decide’ or ‘do’ wherein the M&S BOK could be useful? A:
Guidance: Try to establish Team identity and common perspective Be as explicit in specifying role as seems useful Don’t worry, you’ll still have room for personal input Product: Working consensus Role specification
Organization
Person
Role +implies execution of +actions satisf y ing Function
Role
+implies execution of
+actions satisf y ing
Function
STEP 3 – Conceive uses or scenarios for use of the M&S BOK Objective: Establish a consensus appreciation of how you will be using the M&S BOK – what you will do when you use it Activity: Identify (a few) relevant scenarios Q: How might you use the M&S BOK? For each use, cite: - Why you’d want it to do execute the specific function? - What, precisely would you do with it? - What would be its value? - What cost risk would accrue if it weren’t available? A:
Characterize activities and activity-sequences that comprise scenarios Q: For one or two of the above potential scenarios, tell the story of how M&BOK might be used. – who does what, with what, to what effect? This is a little like writing a screen play – Use as much or as little ‘stage direction’ as you think necessary.
A:
Guidance: Tell the ‘story’ of using the M&S BOK Don’t be too formal, but be explicit in order to anticipate Use Case specification to follow Use any form of scenario description you find convenient - bullets or prose descriptions, including all the actors, props, transactions, etc. Product: Scenario Specification
STEP 4 – ‘Document’ the Use Case Objective: Achieve a documented, persistent, and de facto validated Use Case to support BOK development Activity: Generalize scenarios Q: What general scenario best captures the intended use you imagine. How can the scenario’s actors, sequence of activities, and consequences be expressed to be as comprehensive as possible without loosing the specificity necessary to suggest real uses and, eventually, real M&S BOK product requirements. A:
Generate event trace (sequence diagram?) or interaction description (collaboration diagram?) or both Q: what sequence of events or interactions captures the essece of your use case? A:
Guidance: Use COTS applications, templates or text description to represent Use Case Strive for comprehensive completeness rather than detail Product: Use Case specification
Use Case
M&S BOK System
-End1 -End2 * * -End6 -End5 Use M&S BOK * * -End3 M&S BOK User * -End4 Maintain M&S BOK * BOK Custodian Develop M&S BOK
BOK Developer
Actor
BOK User User Query
BOK GUI
BOK Data Store
BOK Log File
Acknowledge Query Log User Query and Acknowledgement Message3 Log Data request Data Delivery Log Data Delivery Query Response Log Query Response Delivery
Tra Data
BOK User(s) Query BOK GUI
nsfer
BOK Data Store
Log Message
Log m
e ssa g e
BOK Log File
STEP 5 – Educe Use Case Implications – so what? Objective: Capture what you have learned about the desired M&S BOK while documenting Use Cases Activity: Discuss what your Use Case ‘tells’ you about the characteristics of the desired M&S BOK product … about developing that product, … about using it, … about maintaining it Identify any particular evident risks or opportunities Q: What risks occur to you regarding the specification of the M&S BOK based on your appreciation of your Use Case? What can go wrong? What can be done to ameliorate risk to product utility, program cost or Program schedule? A:
Capture recommendations Q: What have you learned about potential use of the M&S BOK? Q: What characteristics should the M&S BOK exhibit? Q: How should we proceed to develop the M&S BOK? Q: How should it be made available for use? Q: How should it be maintained? Q: Who should bear responsibility for the M&S BOK? A:
Guidance: Don’t try too hard, just get the value out of what you now know Product: Comments and recommendations
Step 6 – Brief your Team’s Results Objective: Communicate and share your findings … identify common and distinctive findings and areas for further exploration Activity: Prepare a briefing in accordance with the template provided Please answer the following questions in your briefing: What was your Team’s assumed role? What uses of the M&S BOK did you explore? What requirements did you identify for the M&S BOK lifecycle management What other interesting findings arose What recommendations do you have for pursuing M&S BOK Present your briefing to the other Teams Guidance: Keep it informal, collegial, and constructive Product: Briefing Consensus across participating Teams
Team Role
M&S BOK Workshop Use-Case:
ASTC ’04 21 April 2004
Team Members:
M&S BOK Requirements
Use Case(s)
M&S BOK Findings
MS BOK Recommendations