Managing use cases with use cases grid

Use Cases Grid is a table with use cases listed in it. It lets you to access all use cases in a project or diagram, check their related actors, lookup and create use case.

Creating the use case grid

Click on UML on toolbar and select Use Case Grid from the drop down menu.

Open Use Case Grid

 

The overview of use cases grid

The use cases grid

Button Name Description Configure Grid Click this button to reveal Name and Model Element. To hide them, click this button again. Create Use Case Create a new use case. Find To find a use case by providing its name or documentation. Open Specification... To open the specification of use case selected in grid. Open Use Case Detail To open the use case details of use case selected in grid. Show View... To show the view(s) of use case selected in grid. Visualize... To visualize a use case selected in grid. Configure columns... Add/ remove property column(s) in Term list. Refresh To update the display on the Term list. Project To filter use cases by selecting the diagram(s) (or all diagrams) that contain the use cases. Use Case's name filter To filter use cases by name. The rubber on the right hand side is for clearing the filter content.

The fields in use cases grid

Accessing actor from use case

Click on the name of actor in the Primary Actors/Supporting Actors column of the use case that we want to access its related actor.

Access actor from use case

Creating use case

1. Click on above the grid.
   

   Create a use case

2. Name the use case. You may optionally reset the ID by double-clicking on the ID cell and entering a new one.
   

   Name use case

   NOTE:

   The use cases created in use cases grid are automatically put under the Use Cases model. You may move to another model through dragging and dropping in Model Explorer.

Browsing use case's details

To browse for the details of a use case, select the use case in grid and click on the button. This opens its use case details.

Visualizing a use case

You can form a diagram with use case, or show it in an existing diagram by visualizing it in use cases grid. To visualize a use case:

1. Select the use case to visualize.
   

   Select a use case to visualize

2. Click on above the grid.
   

   Click Visualize button

3. If you want to visualize use case in a new diagram, check Create new diagram, select the type of diagram to create and then specify the diagram name.
   

   Name a new diagram

   If you want to visualize use case in an existing diagram, check Show in existing diagram and select a diagram in the diagram list.
   

   Select an existing use case diagram to visualize the use case

4. Click Create button at the bottom of the dialog box.

Filtering use cases

By filtering use cases, use cases that do not match the required naming convention are filtered. To filter, enter the name of use case, or part of its name at the top right of grid. You can make use of the asterisk (*) character to represent any character(s).

Filter use case by name

Finding use case

To find out use cases that match specific naming or documentation pattern:

1. Click above the grid.
   

   Find a use case

2. In the Search Text text box, enter the text to search. Specify whether to search the names and/or documentation of use cases. Click Find. As a result, the matched use case(s) will be highlighted.

   Enter use case name, check Name and click Find button