Hi Craig, Guy, Tony, & other readers,
First of all, I want to echo Guy's sentiment: Do hammers really help? Yes!
Hammers are useful if they are used for the right purpose: hammering nails.
Are there cases when hammers work for other purposes and situations? Yes again - but only if you do so when it makes sense...
Personally, I used a hammer many times and "knew" it would work. Why? Because my grand daddy used one, my father used one, and I used one and it worked. Do I need a "proof" that it works - probably not.
Same goes with Use Cases...
Do use cases really help? Yes - but only if you use them in the right context and for the right purpose. This applies to any tool, technique, or method.
Yes - there is lots of bias out there both for and against use cases:
- So many books on uses so they must work,
- It's an OMG standard so it must be good,
- I saw a project using use cases and the project failed,
- I bought a $5.99 use case template and it was really bad,
- etc.
Personally - I've successfully used use cases and they worked very well. Do I employ use cases on every project? No - I don't!
Having said that, it would be nice to have a study on the effectiveness of various tools/techniques to find out what works in what context. Unfortunatelly, it's probably not something easy to setup since there are so many variables which contribute to the success of a project.
I once worked with a high-level executive who, when told that we would utilize use cases, he said: "@%#k use cases'. We said OK, and the next day we changed every reference of "use cases" with "functional description" while leaving everything else the same: diagrams, naratives, alternate flows, etc. All the project stakeholders, including our high-level executive, loved how the project team used the "new" technique of "functional descriptions". The project went on to be a great success.
- Adrian