[jsdl-wg] Comparison of Use Case Templates

[Mark Morgan]

As one of my action items, I was asked to read three use case templates that we are considering for JSDL and to compare and contrast them.  This email summarizes my findings.

For this email, I will use J to refer to the original JSDL Use Case document, P to refer to the PGI use case document, and E to refer to the use case template that Etienne suggested.

J is very high level consisting almost entirely (and exclusively) of sequence diagrams for message interactions and the list of those messages.  This use case document is very low on details and in my opinion is too high level to be useful for our needs.

P is much more detailed and offers what I would like to call a medium++ amount of detail.  Detail is available in english, but at a summarization level mostly.

E is VERY similar to P in many regards but is at a MUCH more detailed view.  E talks about actors, scenarios, systems, etc.  In my opinion, while E represents more work for would be use case developers, it also represents the most useful approach to use case implementation as the amount of detail is high.

-Mark