High level use case diagram help

tincat

Hi all,

I hope some of you might be able to help me.

1) Just say that you wanted to register for a mobile service (e.g. ringtone subscription just as an example) as a client, and your options were:

a) to do so on the company website by entering your mobile #, or
b) to send a text,

Would the actors include (client : website : mobile server)?

2) I need to think of the best way to name both the website, and the mobile server, both of which would receive the request to register from the client, and then confirm by sending an order back to the mobile phone. The client would then have to reply to the order with yes or no to confirm the service.

3) Would the mobile phone itself be an actor, (making 4 actors in total) or only the client? (The reason I ask is because the service sends an 'order' to the phone, and only upon the phone sending a "yes" is the service activated. This is to stop someone registering a mobile without authorisation)

Thanks

kevsan

In UML/ use cases, the actors represent anything outside of the 'system' being represented.... so it is really down to your interpretation.

The system is the sequence of steps required to produce an output. In the first case, yes they could be actors, or the website & mobile server could be part of the system with the client as the actor... but would you also need to represent the company running the service (the registrar) as an actor....??

not sure what you are asking for at 2... use case's rely on simple representations, does website/mobile server not suffice??

For 3: "A use case describes a sequence of actions that provide something of measurable value to an actor".. does the phone have something of value without the client activating the yes response... but again, its down to your interpretation and justification....

Hope that helps.

tincat

Thank you so much for your reply.

I think you probably are right, that I should have the 'registrar' as the actor, and then I could just have 2 use cases, one for applying online, and one for texting an application. In fact, I think that makes a lot more sense.

In '2)' I don't know if there is a better word to describe the mobile server. I will use it unless anyone can think of a better term.

I am still undecided about the phone itself being an actor, since the service cannot be activated by the user, unless they have that specific phone in hand. Do you have a suggestion from experience?