use_case_2007

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UML Use Cases using Magicdraw

Robin Beaumont [email protected]

Tuesday, 04 October 2011

Contents1 Required Resources ............................................................................................................................................... 2

2 Revision ................................................................................................................................................................. 2

3 Our problem .......................................................................................................................................................... 2

4 Setting the perspective you will use in MagicDraw ................................................................................................. 3

5 Creating a new project ........................................................................................................................................... 4 6 Creating a new Diagram ......................................................................................................................................... 5

7 The project window and diagram toolbar - moving around and Zooming ................................................................ 6

8 Removing the grid on the drawing canvas .............................................................................................................. 7

9 Creating an Actor ................................................................................................................................................... 7

10 Creating individual use cases and associations .................................................................................................... 8

11 Tidying the lines ................................................................................................................................................. 9

12 Adding notes ...................................................................................................................................................... 9

13 Saving your project and diagram ....................................................................................................................... 10

14 Displaying diagram information ........................................................................................................................ 10

15 Include, Extend and Inheritance ........................................................................................................................ 11

16 Finding out properties ....................................................................................................................................... 11

17 Learning more about Use Case diagrams ........................................................................................................... 12

18 A common interface .......................................................................................................................................... 12

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Using MagicDraw to Create UML Use Case diagrams

Robin Beaumont [email protected] D:\web_sites_mine\HIcourseweb new\chap11\case_tool_tuts\magicdraw\use_case_2007.docx Page 2 of 12

1 Required Resources

You need the following resources to work through this document:

The “Scenarios for practicing modelling techniques” handout available

from http://www.robin-beaumont.co.uk/virtualclassroom/case_tutorials.htm

MagicDraw software, this depends on who you are: Students at The Royal College of Surgeons (Edin.) will be provided

with the software along with the academic licence. All others can obtain the software by visiting and registering at:

http://www.magicdraw.com/ for the free community edition. An alternative with a similar interface is Visual Paradigm(VP-UML).

The purpose of this practical chapter is to provide you with the skills to draw Use Case diagrams in Magicdraw. Other

documents explain what Use case diagrams are and where they fit into the modelling process.

2 Revision

You should possess knowledge of what Use case diagrams are before working through this practical chapter.

You should have preferably worked through the document; Dynamic modelling and UML part 12 - Use cases and sequence

diagrams at: www.robin-beaumont.co.uk/virtualclassroom/chap11/s3/use_case_sequence_uml.pdf

Alternatively An excellent introduction, along with a general introduction to UML, can be found at:

http://www.developer.com/design/article.php/10925_2109801_1 Also a good book chapter on Use Cases can be found

at; http://www.visual-paradigm.com/special/requestootsamplechapters.jsp

3 Our problem

In this practical chapter we are going to produce a UML Use Case diagram from a narrative description. I assume you have

worked through the material explaining what a Use Case diagram is and how you derive the required information from a

narrative description.

To find out about the descriptions open the document ''Scenarios for practicing modelling techniques” fromhttp://www.robin-beaumont.co.uk/virtualclassroom/contents.html and read through the Local Community Radio Station

narrative.

My tentative list of Actors and Use cases from the narrative are:

Actor

Hospitals

Schools

Manager

Administrator

Recording

engineer

Editor

Presenter

Secretary

Volunteer

Now let's see how we use the above information to create a UML Use Case diagram in MagicDraw.

If you have used MagicDraw before you can move to section 5.

Use Case

Create item

Create

programme

Present

Programme

Maintain

feedback log

Monitor

Book studio

Maintain

equipment

Roles

Processes

http://www.robin-beaumont.co.uk/virtualclassroom/case_tutorials.htm



http://www.magicdraw.com/


http://www.robin-beaumont.co.uk/virtualclassroom/chap11/s3/use_case_sequence_uml.pdf



http://www.developer.com/design/article.php/10925_2109801_1


http://www.visual-paradigm.com/special/requestootsamplechapters.jsp



http://www.robin-beaumont.co.uk/virtualclassroom/contents.html








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4 Setting the perspective you will use in MagicDraw

The first time you open MagicDraw after installing it you are asked

to specify what type of user you are ('user perspective'). Set the

options as shown in the screen shot below.

The first screen is rather

cluttered, to say the least, so

the first thing I suggest you do is

close the Welcome window

Although the screen appears very

complex you can think of it as consisting

of 4 main areas:

MenuToolbars

Browser window

Drawing Canvas

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5 Creating a new project

We are now ready to create a new project which will include our

Use case diagram. To do this click on the menu option File -> new

project.

Selecting this menu option brings up a dialogue box asking a name

for the project and a place to save it. The screen shot below tells

you which options to choose in each dialogue box.

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6 Creating a new Diagram

We now have a relatively empty screen, let's review some interesting aspects of it before moving on. Along the toolbar at

the top of the screen there are a series of icons which allow you to easily create new UML diagrams of various types.

Along the left hand side of the screen there is a panel with four tabs along the top of it clicking on the third one 'diagrams'

provides us with a graphical display of the diagrams we might have in the project, as we would expect this is empty at the

moment. Finally notice that the middle of the tool bar provides you with details of the actual project filename 'radio

station.mdzip' along with where it is on the hard drive.

Besides clicking on the appropriate icon on the toolbar tocreate a new diagram is it possible to do it the old fashioned

way by using the menu option Diagrams -> Use Case Diagrams.

Once you choose this the Use case diagrams dialogue box

appears which is empty at the moment, click the 'Add' button

and follow the instructions in the screen shot below.

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7 The project window and diagram toolbar - moving around and Zooming

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8 Removing the grid on the drawing canvas

One thing I find annoying is the grid on the drawing canvas, follow the details below to remove it.

9 Creating an Actor

The panel on the immediate left of the drawing canvas provides a easy way of creating various UML elements onto the

drawing canvas by dragging them across.

Exercise 1:

Follow the instructions above to create the project Radio Station and a UML use case diagram called Overview.

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Exercise 2:

Add the following actors to your use case diagram:

10 Creating individual use cases and associations

To create individual Use Cases you select the use case icon on the left hand panel and drag it onto the drawing canvas. To

name it you just start to type

immediately.

Actors in Use Case diagrams communicate with Use casesvia associations.

Important: the term association here does not have the

same meaning as an association in UML Class diagrams I

tend to think of these as messages.

The diagram on the right shows you how to create an

association. The pop up menu appears when the Use case

is selected.

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11 Tidying the lines

Once you start to add a number of associations the

diagram will become to look rather messy. One

easy way of tidying it up is to change the style of

the lines. I would recommend that you usually

keep the same line style for all the lines within a

particular diagram.

12 Adding notes

The Use case diagram we are creating is just an

overview of the system we are beginning to model,

one of the main purposes of a Use Case diagram is

to encourage discussion between all the

stakeholders therefore an initial diagram will

contain many questions that will need clarifying in drawn out meetings.

To create a note click on the note icon and then clickthe drawing canvas.

Exercise 3:

Modify your Use Case diagram to resemble the one below:

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13 Saving your project and diagram

Always remember to save your project. This will include all the diagrams etc.

If you wish to make copies with different names use the Save Project As . .

option.

14 Displaying diagram information

It is possible to display a table showing such things as the diagram name,

author, and creation, modification dates.

While in the drawing canvas right mouse click in an empty part of the diagram

you want to add the information table to. A properties menu appears which

you just need to click on the 'Show diagram info' option.

Once you have

done this a

information table

will appear in the

diagram.

You can move the table by clicking on it and dragging it around the

diagram.

You can also change its contents, look and feel by selecting it and

then right clicking, selecting Customize, which brings up its own

project options box. To change the text size font etc just use the

menu options along the top of the drawing canvas after selecting

the information table.

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15 Include, Extend and Inheritance

You use the same technique as described above to add other diagram elements such as include, extend and inheritance

associations. In the example below I have indicated

that the process of creating a programme involves

creating items.

16 Finding out properties

It is easy to find out what characteristics of a particular element (e.g. actor, Use case, association etc) you can edit. You

can either select the element by left mouse clicking on it then once selected RIGHT mouse click which brings up a menu.

Alternatively you can constantly see the characteristics of the currently selected element by moving to the properties tabof the browser window.

Rather than selecting the element

you want on the actual diagram you

can go to the containment tab of the

browser window and select what

you want there.

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17 Learning more about Use Case diagrams

MagicDraw comes with two case studies, the Inventory control system and a Library system. The Inventory control system

has a simple Use case diagram while the Library system contains a much more complex one. I personally feel that the

Inventory control system's Use case diagram reflects the spirit of the Use case diagram more accurately. See what you

think.

18 A common interface

You might be interested to know that superficially the screen layout of MagicDraw is very similar to a number of other

Case tools so once you have learnt it you should have little difficulty moving to several others. It is important to realise

that while each Case tool may look initially very similar, in fact most offer very different features.

The screen shot opposite is that of another UML case tool VP-UML.

End of document

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