Understanding the concepts behind UML and use cases a bit more

I've written use cases before.  I knew that it was mainly for us to see the users' intentions and the actions that correspond to them.  However, I was really overwhelmed by Cockburn's book because we didn't really make use cases before.  We just wrote down requirements and objectives.  That was all.  Going about things the use case way was very new and something that I had to read more about.  However, one of the projects was really overwhelming so I wasn't able to go into further details about uses cases.  Recently, I've stumbled upon several PDFs that discuss UML and use cases and how they are related.

I guess that one of the things I've learned this weekend is that use cases come in many forms.  Like informal use cases where you have short paragraphs to tell what it is.  There is also the fully-dressed version, so to speak.  It is really detailed.  And I also learned that sometimes we have to think of the wider scope because the very narrowed down use cases could be considered as sub-units of the use cases.  Like the example about user log-in.  What's the intention?  It's for user authentication.  It's for user management.  Sometimes we get too engrossed in the details that we forget that we should focus on the intent when we're writing use cases.

Another thing about use cases is that we could use UML so we could have a visual representation of these use cases.  The use case diagram is not the end-all, be-all solution in showing who the actors are and what the actions are.  But we could have an idea of what's going on.

I guess that tying up all the things  I am learning from UML, Domain Driven Design and writing use cases will definitely help me in working better.  I have gained a different perspective of things when it comes to development and how each of us in the company would have a role to play.  (A role or roles. It really depends on the situation of course ;) Hehe.)