TECHNOLOGY FOR IDENTIFYING AND FORMING POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN USE CASES IN THE PROCESS OF THE INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN

Abstract

Context. Use cases are widely used as a means of formulating requirements in the development of information systems. All subsequent design stages depend on the quality of their presentation. Structuring use cases can significantly increase their understanding and maintenance in the face of changing requirements.. Objective. Flexible technologies involve working in small teams. The existing communication between teams is not sufficient to highlight sub use cases at the project level. There is a need for automated analysis of the corpus of all use cases. Method. A mathematical model of a use case which makes it possible to define the criteria for comparing scenarios and eliminate the redundancy of descriptions is proposed. A four-step method for restructuring use cases has been developed. At the first stage, use cases are presented in a formalized form. At the second, they are stored in the repository, which ensures their quick search and placement. At the third stage, procedures of scenario comparison are performed. Scenario similarity criteria are proposed. At the fourth stage, the formation of subordinate use cases is carried out, their texts are coordinated with all interested teams, and the use cases that cause subordinate use cases are corrected. Results. Experiments providing the formalized compilation of use cases by several development teams followed by automated restructuring were carried out to test the proposed solutions. As a result, new subordinate use cases were correctly identified and the scope of use of previously formed ones was expanded. There was a significant reduction in the time for restructuring. Conclusions. The proposed method of restructuring use cases improves the clarity and consistency of requirements, the possibility of their adjustment and maintenance, and reduces the compilation time. The method can be used in the design of any information system, where the requirements are presented in the form of use cases.