Example

In considering who would be using the Arts Centre Booking System (ACBS), an important issue immediately becomes apparent: will this system only be used by Arts Centre staff, or will it be available to customers (for example, as a kiosk or web site)? The answer to this question will significantly impact the nature of the system, and so it is best that it be answered quickly.

In the case of our example, there is not enough information to answer this question, and so we would have to go back to the sponsor to find out. We will assume that the system will only be used by Arts Centre staff.

Just listing the staff in the Arts Centre gives a good idea of the likely actors. Such a list might include: the people at the ticket booth who actually sell the tickets (ticket sellers), the person who cares about how well events go, such as the attendance rates for performances (business manager), the person who is in charge of what events are on and what performances there are (event manager), the person in charge of the arts center (managing director), the person in charge of finances (accountant), and possibly other people in the organisation (administration staff). And of course there are also the arts centre patrons, who clearly have an interest in what the system does. From this list, we can come up with a first cut at our list of actors.

Ticket Seller:

This is the person who sells tickets, makes reservations, and answers customers' queries about events in the Arts Centre. People playing this role will often be casual staff, and so cannot be assumed to have much knowledge of the domain. On the other hand, they are employees and so some minimal level of domain knowledge can be assumed (for example, through staff training). They will not be expected to know anything about computer systems, but they will use the system very frequently.

We have already determined that arts centre patrons will not directly use the system, however they will have expectations of the ticket seller, which will translate to the ticket seller's expectations of the system.

Event Manager:

This is the person who decides what events are booked into the arts centre, when performances happen (or not), where they are held, and what the seating layout is. People playing this role will have a lot of knowledge about events and related aspects of the job, but cannot be assumed to have much knowledge about computer systems. They will use the system several times a week, but probably not as often as once a day.

Business Manager:

The actual business manager probably doesn't want to touch the system at all, and so will get someone else to actual produce the reports he needs from the system. Nevertheless, this does not mean there is no Business Manager Actor, but rather there is someone playing that role. For that reason, either this actor will not have much knowledge about the domain (in this case, what the business manager's concerns are), or will not have much knowledge about the system (or possibly both).

Accounting System:

By talking to the Accountant, we discover that her only interest in the proposed system is to get the sales information, and by preference would like it to be delivered directly to the existing accounting system. Assuming this system has the ability to interface to other computing systems, it would be a system actor for the proposed system.