6/10/2021 UML use case diagrams graphical notation reference - subject, actor, use cases, relationships between them,

n them, extend, i…

Use Case Diagrams Reference

Notation Description
Subject

The subject
(of use cases) is the system under design or consideration
to
which a set of use cases apply.
The subject could be a physical system,
software program, or smaller element that may have behavior,
e.g.
subsystem, component, or even class.

Subject is presented by a rectangle with subject name in upper corner with

applicable
use cases inside the rectangle and actors - outside of the
system boundaries.

Books Online (subject) with applicable

use cases and Web Customer actor.

Standard UML stereotypes and keywords

for the subject are:
«Subsystem»
«Process»
«Service»
«Component»

Weather Service subject stereotyped

as «Service».

Applicability of Use Cases

Use cases visually located inside the system boundaries are the use cases
applicable to the subject (but not necessarily owned by the subject).

Use cases Browse Items and Buy Items

are applicable to Retail Website
subject.

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Ownership of Use Cases

The nesting (ownership) of a use case by a classifier is represented using
the standard notation
for nested classifiers.

Retail Website subject owns use

cases.

Actor

Standard UML icon for actor is "stick man" icon with the name of the actor
above or below the icon.
Actor names should follow the capitalization and
punctuation guidelines for
classes.
The names of abstract actors should be
shown in italics. All actors must have names.

Student actor.

Custom icons that convey the kind of actor may also be used to denote an
actor,
such as using a separate icon(s) for non-human actors.

Custom icon for Web Client actor.

Custom icon for Bank actor.

A business actor (introduced in Rational Unified Process

to support
Business Modeling) represents a role played by some person or system
external to the modeled business.
Business actor is not part of UML
standard.

Business actor is shown as "stick man" icon with a line crossing its head.

Business actor Passenger.

An actor may also be shown as a

class rectangle with
the keyword «actor»,
having usual notation for class compartments, if needed.

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Customer actor as Class.

Generalization between actors

Generalization between actors is rendered as a solid directed line with a

large arrowhead
(the same as for generalization between classes).

Web Client actor is abstract superclass

for Administrator, Editor and
Customer.

Use Case
Every use case must have a name. Use case is shown as an ellipse containing
the name of the use case.

User Registration Use Case.

A use case could be shown as an ellipse with the name of the use case placed
below the ellipse.

Transfer Funds Use Case.

Business use case was introduced in Rational Unified Process to

support Business Modeling - to represent business function, process, or
activity
performed in the modeled business.

Business use case is represented in RUP with use case oval icon and a line
crossing it down right.
Business use case Individual Check-
In.

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An optional stereotype keyword may be placed above the name and a list of
properties -
operations and attributes - included below the name in a
compartment.

Use Case User Sign-In stereotyped as

«authentication»

Use case with extension points may be listed in a compartment of the use
case with
the heading extension points.

Registration Use Case with

extension points Registration Help
and User Agreement.

A use case can also be shown using the standard rectangle notation for
classifiers with an
ellipse icon in the upper righthand corner of the rectangle
and with optional separate list compartments for its features.

Registration Use Case shown using

the standard rectangle notation
for
classifiers.

Use case could be rendered in the frame labeled as use case or in abbreviated
form as uc.

The content area of the frame could contain different kinds of UML diagrams.
For example, use case could be described with activity diagram or state
machine.

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Use case Search Items rendered as

frame with

associated Search Items

activity
diagram

Generalization between use cases

Generalization
between use cases is similar to generalization between
classes – child use case
inherits properties and behavior of the parent use case
and may override the behavior of the parent.

It is rendered as a solid directed line with a large arrowhead, the same as for
generalization
between classifiers.

Web User Authentication use case is

abstract use case
specialized by
Login, Remember Me and Single Sign-
On use cases.

Extend

Extend is a directed relationship

that specifies how and when the
behavior defined in usually supplementary
(optional) extending use case
can be inserted into the behavior defined
in the extended use case.

Extended use case is meaningful on its own, it is independent of the

extending use case. Extending use case typically defines optional behavior
Registration use case is complete that is not necessarily meaningful by itself.
and meaningful on its own. It could be
extended with optional Get Help On Extend relationship between use cases is shown by a dashed arrow with an
Registration use case. open
arrowhead from the extending use case to the extended (base) use
case.
The arrow is labeled with the keyword «extend».

The condition of the extend relationship as well as the references to the

extension points
are optionally shown in a comment note
attached to the
corresponding extend relationship.

Registration use case is conditionally

extended by Get Help On Registration
use case
in extension point
Registration Help.

Extension Point

An extension point is a feature of a

use case which identifies (references)
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a point in the behavior of the use case where that behavior can be extended
by
some other (extending) use case, as specified by extend relationship.

Extension points may be shown in a compartment of the use case oval symbol
under the heading
extension points.
Each extension point must have a
name, unique within a use case.
Extension points are shown as a text string
according to the syntax:

extension point ::=

name [: explanation ]
Registration Use Case with
extension points
Registration Help
and User Agreement.

Extension points may be shown in a compartment of the use case rectangle

with ellipse icon under the heading extension points.

Extension points of the Registration

use case shown using the rectangle
notation.

Include

An include relationship is a directed relationship

between two
use cases
when required, not optional behavior of the included use case is inserted
into
the behavior of the including (base) use case.

The include relationship is analogous to a subroutine call or macro and could

be used:
when there are common parts of the behavior of two or more use cases,
to simplify large use case by splitting it into several use cases.
An include relationship between use cases is shown by a dashed arrow with
Deposit Funds and Withdraw an open
arrowhead from the base use case to the included use case.
The arrow
Cash use cases
include Customer is labeled with the keyword «include».
Authentication use case.

Large and complex use case could be simplified by splitting it into several use
cases each describing some logical unit of behavior. Note, that including use
case
becomes incomplete by itself and requires included use cases to be
complete.

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Checkout use case includes several use

cases - Scan Item,

Calculate Total and Tax, and Payment

Association
An association between an actor and a use case indicates that the actor and
the use case
communicate with each other.
An actor could be associated to one or several use cases.

Actor Customer associated with two

use cases.

Use case may have one or several associated actors.

It may not be obvious from use case diagram which actor initiates the use
case,
i.e. is "primary actor".
(In non-standard UML, primary actors are
those using system services, and supporting actors
are actors providing
services to the system.)

Use case Manage Account associated

with Customer and Bank actors.

When an actor has an association to a use case with a multiplicity that is

greater than one
at the use case end, it means that a given actor can be
involved in multiple use cases
of that type. The specific nature of this
multiple involvement is not defined in the UML 2.2.
Use case multiplicity could mean that an actor initiates multiple use cases:
in parallel (concurrently), or
Actor Bank is involved in multiple at different points in time, or
Use cases Transfer Funds. mutually exclusive in time.

Required actor may be explicitly denoted using multiplicity 1 or greater.

UML
2.5 also allows actor to be optional.
Multiplicity 0..1 of actor means that the
actor is not required
by any of the associated use cases.

Checkout use case requires Customer

actor, hence the 1 multiplicity of
Customer.
The use case may not need
Credit Payment Service (for example,
if payment is in cash),
thus the 0..1
multiplicity.

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When a use case has

an association
to an actor with a multiplicity that is
greater than one at the
actor end, it means that more than one actor
instance is involved
in initiating the use case.
The manner in which
multiple actors participate in the use case
is not defined in the UML 2.x
up to the latest UML 2.5.
For instance, actor's multiplicity could mean that:
Two or more Player actors are
a particular use case might require simultaneous (concurrent) action by
involved in Play Game use case.
Each
two separate actors
(e.g., in launching a nuclear missile), or
Player participates in one Play Game.
it might require complementary and successive actions by the actors
(e.g., one actor starting something and the other one stopping it).

Noticed a spelling error? Select the text using the mouse and press Ctrl + Enter.

 

 

 

 
by Kirill Fakhroutdinov.
 
This document describes UML versions up to
UML 2.5
and is based on the corresponding OMG™ Unified
Modeling Language™ (OMG UML®) specifications.
UML diagrams were created in Microsoft® Visio®
2007-2016 using UML 2.x Visio Stencils.
You can send your comments and suggestions to webmaster
at [email protected].
 
Copyright © 2009-2020 uml-diagrams.org. All rights reserved.
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6/10/2021 UML use case diagrams graphical notation reference - subject, actor, use cases, relationships between them, extend, i…

Forward • 6 years ago

May someone be kind enough to explain to me so that I may hav the clear picture of <<extend>>,
<<generalize>> and <<include>>

Thanks in Advance
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Bbazaz • 7 years ago

This is UML Heaven.... This is all i needed....... Thnx a lot...
1△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Cs • 8 years ago
For an included use case which does not directly connect to user, who would be the actor?

Thanks.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Emil Carstens > Cs • 4 years ago

Those actors in the original UC from which the include association originates.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

jm • 9 years ago
Is there any difference between generalization and <<extend>>? I think that they are very similar, with
sutile differences.

A extends B ("Get help on registration" extends "Registration") may be represented as (A+B) subtype of
B ("Registration using help" subtype of "Registration"), isn't it?

Thank you and congratulations

△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

JonERotn > jm • 4 years ago

Generalization can apply to actors as well as use cases. It signifies specific types being super-
typed. For example, Poodle and Terrier can be generalized into Dog. Domestic Student and
International Student can be generalized into Student. All of the attributes of Student applies to
both D.S. & I.S., but D.S. and I.S. might have additional attributes unique to each.

Extends applies to use cases. It signifies an optional, but complete, actor goal (use case) that
adds on (extends) additional functionality. For example, using an ATM, the customer can
execute use case Withdraw Cash, and also execute an optional use case Print Withdrawal
Receipt, which extends the Withdraw Cash use case. The actor would not execute Print
Withdrawal Receipt directly without first executing Withdraw Cash.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Albert • 9 years ago

I want to know if the dependency or association <<depends on="">> is the same with <<includes>> or
with <<extends>> ?

Thanks. Hope for a reply as much as possible. Thanks and regards.

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KF Mod > Albert • 9 years ago

In UML 2.x Dependency ("depends on") is (subclass of) directed relationship: http://www.uml-
diagrams.org...

Extend and Include are also (subclasses of) directed relationship. Though these relationships
look the same - as dashed arrow - all are different relationships.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Paweł > KF • 6 years ago

The "dependency" relationship is not permitted on use case diagram, right?

So this diagram presented by Microsoft is wrong: https://msdn.microsoft.com/... (Shape

nr 8, also shape 10 - artifact on Use Case diagram- I have never saw it before)

What about "invoke" recenlty I stumbled upon some diagrams whith those. ie.e this book
"Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UMLTheory and Practice " on page 65 even
recommends using it http://www.amazon.com/Drive...
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

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