© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005 A Comparative Analysis of Use Case Relationships

Abstract. Use case relationships are used to manage the complexity of use cases. The UML defines the three types of use case relationships: include, ex-tend, and generalization. The appropriate use of the use case relationships, however, is one of the most contentious areas. We found that the suggestions of various authors overlap but conflict, leaving room for dissension. In this paper, we present a comparative analysis of the use case relationships discussed in eleven literatures, including the UML 2.0 specification. For a coherent approach for applying use case relationships, we present three rules derived from the re-view of the literatures and our own experience and illustrates the rules with ex-amples. Our rules are based on the analysis of preconditions, postconditions of use cases, and characteristics of the behaviors being separated.