Use case and task models

Abstract

User Interface (UI) development methods are poorly integrated with standard software engineering practice. The differences in terms of artifacts involved, development philosophies, and lifecycles can often result in inconsistent system and UI specifications leading to duplication of effort and increased maintenance costs. To address such shortcomings, we propose an integrated development methodology for use case and task models. Use cases are generally used to capture functional requirements whereas task models specify the detailed user interactions with the UI. Our methodology can assist practitioners in developing software processes which allow these two kinds of artifacts to be developed in a codependent and integrated manner. We present our methodology, describe its semantic foundations along with a set of formal conformance relations, and introduce an automated verification tool.