UML Designer User's Guide


Identifying concepts

In addition to actors and things, there might be other important ideas described in the use case that need to be documented. Going through the use case description, we can identify terms that need additional explanation. As you do this, it's important to decide on standard terminology, in order to be sure everyone understands the requirements the same way. Careful definition of terms can help to overcome the imprecision and ambiguity inherent in natural language.

As a general rule, each term should refer to only one concept, and each concept should be described by only one term. In addition, any domain-specific terminology, or domain-specific usage of common terms, should be fully defined. We can use concept elements to capture this information.


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