Authors: Sky Marsen, Robert Biddle, James Noble, Elvis Software Design Research Group ~
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Use cases are the accepted contemporary vehicle for the capture, collection and management of functional requirements for information systems and networked e- and m- commerce environments .While employed widely, use cases lack a critical theoretical foundation. As a result, the applications of use cases vary greatly in practice. We present an analysis of use cases based on the narrative semiotics of Greimas and the narratology of Propp. Our analysis illustrates how these techniques can expose common weaknesses and implicit assumptions latent within use case texts, and can provide a principled basis for the systematic review and evaluation of use cases within information systems development methodologies.