Towards an inspection technique for use case models

Abstract

A use case model describes the functional requirements of a software system and is used as input to several activities in a software development project. The quality of the use case model therefore has an important impact on the quality of the resulting software product. Software inspection is regarded as one of the most efficient methods for verifying software documents. There are inspection techniques for most documents produced in a software development project, but no comprehensive inspection technique exists for use case models. This paper presents a taxonomy of typical defects in use case models and proposes a checklist-based inspection technique for detecting such defects. This inspection technique was evaluated in two studies with undergraduate students as subjects. The results from the evaluations indicate that inspections are useful for detecting defects in use case models and motivate further studies to improve the proposed inspection technique.