“A comparative study of importance of use case & sequence diagram in Large-sized Projects”

Mr.Yashwant Waykar
Department of Management Science
Dr.B.A.M.University, Aurangabad
[email protected]

Abstract – use case diagrams overview the usage requirements for a system. They are useful for presentations to
management and/or project stakeholders, but for actual development you will find that use cases provide significantly
more value because they describe "the meat" of the actual requirements. Whereas UML sequence diagrams model the
flow of logic within your system in a visual manner, enabling you both to document and validate your logic, and are
commonly used for both analysis and design purposes. Sequence diagrams are the most popular UML artifact for
dynamic modeling, which focuses on identifying the behavior within your system. This article focuses on the
comparative study importance of use-case & sequence diagram for Large-sized projects i.e. s/w that requires 1 to 2 years
for development. As per the data analysis it can be concluded that the sequence diagram has upper hand over the use-
case diagram. Sequence diagram is found to be more important than use-case diagram in system analysis & other phases
of s/w development: specifically for the large-sized projects.

Keywords –UML, sequence diagram, use-case diagram

Introduction –

Use-Case Diagram -

Overview:
To model a system the most important aspect is to capture the dynamic behavior. To clarify a bit in details, dynamic
behavior means the behavior of the system when it is running /operating.
So only static behavior is not sufficient to model a system rather dynamic behavior is more important than static behavior. In
UML there are five diagrams available to model dynamic nature and use case diagram is one of them. the use case diagram is
dynamic in nature there should be some internal or external factors for making the interaction.
These internal and external agents are known as actors. So use case diagrams are consists of actors, use cases and their
relationships. The diagram is used to model the system/subsystem of an application. A single use case diagram captures a
particular functionality of a system.
So to model the entire system numbers of use case diagrams are used.

Purpose:
The purpose of use case diagram is to capture the dynamic aspect of a system. But this definition is too generic to
describe the purpose.
Because other four diagrams (activity, sequence, collaboration and State chart) are also having the same purpose. So we will
look into some specific purpose which will distinguish it from other four diagrams.
Use case diagrams are used to gather the requirements of a system including internal and external influences. These
requirements are mostly design requirements. So when a system is analyzed to gather its functionalities use cases are prepared
and actors are identified.
Now when the initial task is complete use case diagrams are modeled to present the outside view.
So in brief, the purposes of use case diagrams can be as follows:
 Used to gather requirements of a system.
 Used to get an outside view of a system.
 Identify external and internal factors influencing the system.
 Show the interacting among the requirements are actors.

How to draw Use Case Diagram?

Use case diagrams are considered for high level requirement analysis of a system. So when the requirements of a
system are analyzed the functionalities are captured in use cases.
So we can say that uses cases are nothing but the system functionalities written in an organized manner. Now the second things
which are relevant to the use cases are the actors. Actors can be defined as something that interacts with the system.
The actors can be human user, some internal applications or may
be some external applications. So in a brief when we are
planning to draw an use case diagram we should have the
following items identified.
 Functionalities to be represented as an use case
 Actors
 Relationships among the use cases and actors.
Use case diagrams are drawn to capture the functional
requirements of a system. So after identifying the above items
we have to follow the following guidelines to draw an efficient
use case diagram.
 The name of a use case is very important. So the name
should be chosen in such a way so that it can identify
the functionalities performed.
 Give a suitable name for actors.
 Show relationships and dependencies clearly in the
diagram.
 Do not try to include all types of relationships. Because the main purpose of the diagram is to identify requirements.
 Use note when ever required to clarify some important points.
The following is a sample use case diagram representing the order management system. So if we look into the diagram then we
will find three use cases (Order, SpecialOrder and NormalOrder) and one actor which is customer.
The SpecialOrder and NormalOrder use cases are extended from Order use case. So they have extends relationship. Another
important point is to identify the system boundary which is shown in the picture. The actor Customer lies outside the system as
it is an external user of the system.

Where to Use Case Diagrams?

Use case diagram has specific purpose is to gather system requirements and actors.
Use case diagrams specify the events of a system and their flows. But use case diagram never describes how they are
implemented. Use case diagram can be imagined as a black box where only the input, output and the function of the black box is
known.
These diagrams are used at a very high level of design. Then this high level design is refined again and again to get a complete
and practical picture of the system. A well structured use case also describes the pre condition, post condition, exceptions. And
these extra elements are used to make test cases when performing the testing.
Although the use cases are not a good candidate for forward and reverse engineering but still they are used in a slight different
way to make forward and reverse engineering. And the same is true for reverse engineering. Still use case diagram is used
differently to make it a candidate for reverse engineering.
In forward engineering use case diagrams are used to make test cases and in reverse engineering use cases are used to prepare
the requirement details from the existing application.
So the following are the places where use case diagrams are used:
 Requirement analysis and high level design.
 Model the context of a system.
 Reverse engineering.
 Forward engineering.

Sequence Diagram -
Overview:
The diagram is used to describe some type of interactions among the different elements in the model. So this interaction is a part
of dynamic behavior of the system.
This interactive behavior is represented in UML by two diagrams known as Sequence diagram and Collaboration diagram. The
basic purposes of both the diagrams are similar.
Sequence diagram emphasizes on time sequence of messages and collaboration diagram emphasizes on the structural
organization of the objects that send and receive messages.

Purpose:
 The purposes of diagram are to visualize the interactive behavior of the system. Now visualizing interaction is a
difficult task. So the solution is to use different types of models to capture the different aspects of the interaction.
That is why sequence and collaboration diagrams are used to capture dynamic nature but from a different angle.
So the purposes of interaction diagram can be describes as:
 To capture dynamic behavior of a system.
 To describe the message flow in the system.
 To describe structural organization of the objects.
 To describe interaction among objects.

How to draw sequence Diagram?

The purpose of sequence diagram is to capture the dynamic aspect of a system. So to capture the dynamic aspect we
need to understand what a dynamic aspect is and how it is visualized. Dynamic aspect can be defined as the snap shot of the
running system at a particular moment.
So the following things are to identified clearly before drawing the sequence diagram:
 Objects taking part in the interaction.
 Message flows among the objects.
 The sequence in which the messages are flowing.
 Object organization.
The sequence diagram is having four objects (Customer,
Order, SpecialOrder and NormalOrder).
The following diagram has shown the message sequence
for SpecialOrder object and the same can be used in case
of NormalOrder object. Now it is important to understand the
time sequence of message flows. The message flow is nothing
but a method call of an object.
The first call is sendOrder () which is a method
of Order object. The next call is confirm () which is a method
of SpecialOrder object and the last call is Dispatch () which is
a method ofSpecialOrder object. So here the diagram is
mainly describing the method calls from one object to another
and this is also the actual scenario when the system is
running.

Where to use Sequence Diagram?

Sequence diagrams are used to capture the order of messages flowing from one object to another. the sequence diagram is used
when we want to understand the message flow and the structural organization. Now message flow means the sequence of
control flow from one object to another and structural organization means the visual organization of the elements in a system.
In a brief the following are the usages of interaction diagrams:
 To model flow of control by time sequence.
 To model flow of control by structural organizations.
 For forward engineering.
 For reverse engineering.

Literature Review –

The study of Irit Hadar and Orit Hazzan, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel “On the Contribution of UML
Diagrams to Software System Comprehension” found that
“UML was utilized by the students as a multifaceted expression tool. The way in which the different teams sorted the diagrams
in preparation for the comprehension process, the different pivotal diagrams that they leaned on, and the number of "visits"
made to each of the different diagram types, all indicate that the process of comprehension and information extraction from
UML diagrams varies between different people. It was also found that, when taken together, no one diagram type was globally
less or more important than the others for the performance of the comprehension task. In other words, the differences in
preference between the various teams cancelled out each other. The above conclusions are based on the work of senior
computer science students.”

Another study of Fahad Alhumaidan College of Computer Sciences and IT, King Faisal University, Hofuf, KSA on
“A Critical Analysis and Treatment of Important UML Diagrams Enhancing Modelling Power” found that “Unified Modelling
Language (UML) is used at initial phases of software development because of having a reasonable support of diagrams and
notations but has not proved sufficient for the complete modelling of functional and non-functional requirements of a system.
Based on our experience of applying UML, some weaknesses in the diagrams are identified in this paper and a treatment is
presented. For example, most of the UML structures are based on graphical notations and are prone to causing errors. The
hidden semantics under the diagrams allow ambiguities at design level and multiple notations produce inconsistent and
ambiguous models. Further, the models described using UML diagrams may have multiple interpretations and the recipients of
the design may not be able to understand what has been put in the diagrams. There exists some well-established approaches, for
example for- mal methods, which can capture the semantics hidden under the UML diagrams.
Formal methods are useful at all stages of software development because of having rigorous mathematical and
computer tools support. However, at the current stage of development, formal methods are not sufficient in complete modelling
of a system. In this way, UML and formal methods are both useful for design and specification of software systems but an
integration of these approaches will facilitate the software development process.”

Need of the Study –

Unified Modeling Language is used to specify, visualize, modify, construct and document the artifacts of an
object-oriented software-intensive system under development. During this different diagrams are drawn according to need & the
types of requirement. The need of this study is to find out the importance of different diagrams (class, use-case, sequence,
activity, component, deployment, collaboration) during Large-sized software development. Actually to check whether UML
diagrams has some role in Large-Sized s/w or not. Whether all diagrams plays vital role in s/w development or not; or we can
focus on specific diagrams rather than drawing all the diagrams.

Research Methodology –
The survey was conducted among the developers, analysts, associate systems, Test engineer, senior subject
expert, consultants that are working in different IT companies across the Pune region. A small questionnaire was prepared &
near about 26 samples was collected in random selection manner across the IT companies. Also few interviews & informal
discussions were made to identify the comparative importance of use-case & sequence diagrams irrespective of the type of
project & IT companies size.

Analysis & Results –

During the study a questionnaire was given to the IT persons (developers, analysts, associate systems, Test engineer,
senior subject expert, consultants). These persons are working on different s/w development project & also have IT experience
of 1 to 10 years. During their work they came across the different types of projects (web-portals, embedded s/w, products,
desktop applications etc).
The Project or s/w that requires 1 to 2 years of development time were considered as Large-sized projects in this
research article. This article specially focuses to identify the comparative importance of use-case & sequence diagrams in s/w
which requires 1 to 2 years of development time.
As a part of study they have to fill the questionnaire in which they have asked to select any one option out of 4 as per
the importance of UML diagrams.
Ex.
Use Case Diagram –
1. Mandatory (most important) 3. Less Important
2. Important 4. optional

Such type of question is asked for the use-case & sequence diagrams.
The points are assigned to each option of the above question.
1. Mandatory (most important) - 4 points
2. Important - 3 points
3. Less Important - 2 points
4. Optional - 1 point
Ex. If 10 respondents select options 1.Mandatory for class dia. then 10 X 4= 40 points will be considered.
The diagram which gets max points will be considered as the most important diagram for large-sized projects.
Following Results are found during the study for UML diagrams:

1) use-case Diagram – TABLE-I

 Question No. Of In % Points
Options Respondents (26 as
(persons) 100%)
Mandatory 10 Persons 38% 10X4=40
Important 10 Persons 38% 10X3=30
Less 02 Persons 8% 2X2=4
Fig.1 Responses for use-case diagram Important
Optional 04 Persons 15% 4X1=4
Total Points 78
As per TABLE- I we can say that most number of respondent i.e
38% believes that use-case plays important role in s/w development while only 8% believes that use-case would be the less
important amongst all.

3) Sequence Diagram – TABLE-II

Question No. Of In % Points
Options Respondents (26 as
(persons) 100%)
Mandatory 10 Persons 38% 10X4=40
Important 14 Persons 54 % 14X3=42
Less 00 Persons 0% 0X2=0
Important
Optional 02 Persons 08% 2X1=2
Total Points 84

Fig.2 Responses for sequence diagram

According to TABLE-II it can easily be observed that 14 respondent assumes that sequence is an important UML diagram in
Large-Sized s/w development.

Conclusion –

From the study it has been observed that sequence diagram gets 84 points & use-case diagram gets 78 points, as
sequence diagram can be considered as more important than the use-case diagram in the large sized projects.
Respondents feel that a sequence diagram is more useful than the use-case diagram during the system analysis & other
phases of s/w development. Although the difference of points between these two diagrams is very less i.e. 6 points so we don’t
have to neglect the importance of use-case diagram also.
During further research papers I would like to find out the importance of different UML diagrams in different
category/types of s/w development.

References –

1. www.agilemodeling.com/essays/umlDiagrams.htm
2. www.smartdraw.com/resources/tutorials/uml-diagrams/
3. www.uml-diagrams.org/
4. www.tutorialspoint.com/uml/uml_standard_diagrams.htm
5. www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/.../bell/
6. www.simventions.com/whitepapers/uml/3000_borcon_uml.html
7. Principles of Object- Oriented Software Development - Anton Eliens , AddisonWesley.
8. Object Oriented System Development - Ali BahramiMcGRAW-HILL International Edition.
9. Object-Oriented Software Engineering - Ivar Jacobson Pearson Education INC
10. Applying UML And Pattern - Craig Larman Pearson Education INC
11.UML Distilled - Martin Flowler Pearson Education INC
12. The Unified Modeling Language User Guide - Grady Booch, James Rumbaugh, Ivar Jacobson-Pearson Education
INC
13. The Unified Modeling Language Reference Guide - Grady Booch, James Rumbaugh, Ivar Jacobson-Pearson
Education INC