Business Use Case Model Highlights Business Architecture Value

Author(s)

Enterprise Business Architect, Wells Fargo & Company
Andrew Guitarte is a Digital Business Architect Leader and Management Consultant with 29+ years of work experience in the financial, IT, government, and small business industries in the US and Asia. Mr. Guitarte is the founding Chairman of Business Architecture Society based in the San Francisco Bay Area. As an avid sportsman, he equips “corporate athletes” to make a difference in the workplace through his company, Enduraman Corporation. Mr. Guitarte is an Adjunct Professor and Doctoral Candidate in Business Administration at Golden Gate University.

A less known but highly essential artifact of business architecture is the business use case model.

A business use case (hereafter referred to as BUC) model is the higher abstraction of the system use case model (or simply, the UC model). In a BUC, business actors with specific business goals interact with other business actors. The BUC is primarily an external view of the business model or area of interest. A system use case diagram, on the other hand, illustrates the domain from an internal point of view.

A BUC diagram is a type of behavior diagram according to the Unified Modeling Language (UML).1 Other examples of behavior diagrams are the interaction diagram, activity diagram, and state machine diagram. The other type of diagram is the static diagram which includes the class diagram, object diagram, component diagram, and deployment diagram.

How can a BUC model help a business architect? The BUC model is a useful starting point and helps facilitate conversations related to a scope of an idea or a project among business and technical stakeholders. It is an excellent tool, for example, in gathering and eliciting business requirements that meet a particular business need or pain point without specifying how to meet that need. Business requirements are not necessarily system related.  System requirements are mostly functional, which include data and system inputs or outputs. Other types of system requirements are non-functional, which include quality, security, and availability.

What, therefore, differentiates the BUC from system related requirements specification is that it is tied directly to the business. The easiest way to tie a requirement to the business and not to system or IT concepts is to align requirements with common business architecture concept such as a business capability or a value stream. Using these common business architecture concepts as a point of reference reinforces the business-centric nature of the BUC requirement. One example may be a specific requirement to add a Customer Portfolio Management capability that has a BUC specified set of requirements and attributes.

Where can a BUC model best contribute value? A BUC model is the business architect’s technique-of-choice when gathering and validating high-level business requirements. Tech-savvy business managers oftentimes have already a solution in mind when defining ideas for new product launches or process improvements. The danger with this approach is that it is too easy to miss business needs from other business stakeholders due to constraints inherent in a possible solution, whether technology-related or not. A more appropriate approach during a concept definition phase of a project is to provide an external view of the customer/client/citizen task goals within an area of interest without necessarily locking in to a particular implementation option. As mentioned, a possible solution may not even be technology-related.

Why is a BUC model important? It helps to identify the business requirements of a business stakeholder to achieve its goals as well as the requirements the stakeholder imposes on other stakeholders. A BUC model is helpful in identifying value streams and related business processes, business capabilities, and related pain points and problems that need to be addressed, as well as opportunities to be more effective and efficient.

What’s a good example of a BUC? Which elements make a BUC a successful one? You can view a sample BUC from the Cloud Council2 by clicking the link below.  It illustrates the necessary elements and includes attributes such as UC name, version history, background, definitions, concept of operations (current & desired), primary actor/s, business goal, necessary conditions, priorities and risks, normal flow, and frequency of use. You can view additional examples of business use cases at the UML Diagrams website.3

Who creates and maintains the BUC model in a typical systems development life cycle (SDLC)? Business analysts create use case diagrams and use case specifications during the design or elaboration phase of a systems development project but mostly from the systems or internal point of view. They hand over their work to developers and quality assurance analysts during the development or execution phase of the SDLC. Typically, a business analyst refers to a business use case as input to the use case development process. From my experience, enterprise architects or business architects create a business use case model during the early stages of project initiation or conceptualization to document business needs and requirements. But this is more of a matter of convenience. In our organization, business architects are base resources and therefore can be engaged by a product or idea manager during the discovery phase and even before a project receives formal funding.

In summary, a business use case model is the business architect’s best friend in discovering quality high level business requirements.

Footnotes

  1. Ivar Jacobson invented use cases in 1986 to visually model functional (or system) requirements and it became a significant part of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) and UML.
  2. Cloud Council, Business Use Case, accessed on August 25, 2011
  3. Kirill Fakhroutdinov, UML Diagrams, accessed on August 25, 2011

Similar Resources

Enhancing Your Team’s BPM Capabilities: The Value of External Expertise

Enhancing Your Team’s BPM Capabilities: The Value of External Expertise

Author(s):

Editor & Founder, BPMInstitute.org, BAInstitute.org and DBIZInstitute.org

Enhancing Your Team's BPM Capabilities: The Value of External Expertise In today’s dynamic business environment, managing and improving business processes is critical for any organization aiming to maintain a competitive edge. Many companies consider handling Business...

Exploring Shared Data Model and Notation (SDMN) and Its Role in BPM+

Exploring Shared Data Model and Notation (SDMN) and Its Role in BPM+

Author(s):

Editor & Founder, BPMInstitute.org, BAInstitute.org and DBIZInstitute.org

Exploring Shared Data Model and Notation (SDMN) and Its Role in BPM+ Introduction In the evolving landscape of Business Process Management (BPM), the introduction of Shared Data Model Notation (SDMN) marks a significant advancement. As businesses increasingly seek to...

Embracing the Future: Low-Code and No-Code Platforms in BPM+

Embracing the Future: Low-Code and No-Code Platforms in BPM+

Author(s):

Editor & Founder, BPMInstitute.org, BAInstitute.org and DBIZInstitute.org

Embracing the Future: Low-Code and No-Code Platforms in BPM+ Introduction In the realm of business process management (BPM), low-code and no-code platforms have emerged as transformative tools, reshaping how organizations develop applications and manage workflows....

Featured Certificate: BPM Specialist

Everyone starts here.

You're looking for a way to improve your process improvement skills, but you're not sure where to start.

Earning your Business Process Management Specialist (BPMS) Certificate will give you the competitive advantage you need in today's world. Our courses help you deliver faster and makes projects easier.

Your skills will include building hierarchical process models, using tools to analyze and assess process performance, defining critical process metrics, using best practice principles to redesign processes, developing process improvement project plans, building a center of excellence, and establishing process governance.

The BPMS Certificate is the perfect way to show employers that you are serious about business process management. With in-depth knowledge of process improvement and management, you'll be able to take your business career to the next level.

Learn more about the BPM Specialist Certificate

Courses

  •  

 

Certificates

  • Business Process Management Specialist
  • Earning your Business Process Management Specialist (BPMS) Certificate will provide you with a distinct competitive advantage in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. With in-depth knowledge of process improvement and management, you’ll be able to take your business career to the next level.
  • BPM Professional Certificate
    Business Process Management Professional
  • Earning your Business Process Management Professional (BPMP) Certificate will elevate your expertise and professional standing in the field of business process management. Our BPMP Certificate is a tangible symbol of your achievement, demonstrating your in-depth knowledge of process improvement and management.

Certification

BPM Certification

  • Make the most of your hard-earned skills. Earn the respect of your peers and superiors with Business Process Management Certification from the industry's top BPM educational organization.

Courses

 

Certificates

  • Operational Excellence Specialist
  • Earning your Operational Excellence Specialist Certificate will provide you with a distinct advantage in driving organizational excellence and achieving sustainable improvements in performance.
 

 

OpEx Professional Certificate

  • Operational Excellence Professional
  • Earn your Operational Excellence Professional Certificate and gain a competitive edge in driving organizational excellence and achieving sustainable improvements in performance.

Courses

Certificate
  •  

  • Agile BPM Specialist
  • Earn your Agile BPM Specialist Certificate and gain a competitive edge in driving business process management (BPM) with agile methodologies. You’ll gain a strong understanding of how to apply agile principles and concepts to business process management initiatives.  
 

Business Architecture

 

Certificates

  • Business Architecture Specialist
  • The Business Architecture Specialist (BAIS) Certificate is proof that you’ve begun your business architecture journey by committing to the industry’s most meaningful and credible business architecture training program.

  • Business Architecture Professional
  • When you earn your Business Architecture Professional (BAIP) Certificate, you will be able to design and implement a governance structure for your organization, develop and optimize business processes, and manage business information effectively.

BA CertificationCertification

  • Make the most of your hard-earned skills. Earn the respect of your peers and superiors with Business Architecture Certification from the industry's top BPM educational organization.

Courses

 

Certificates

  • Digital Transformation Specialist
  • Earning your Digital Transformation Specialist Certificate will provide you with a distinct advantage in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. 
 

 

  • Digital Transformation Professional
  • The Digital Transformation Professional Certificate is the first program in the industry to cover all the key pillars of Digital Transformation holistically with practical recommendations and exercises.

Courses

Certificate

  • Agile Business Analysis Specialist
  • Earning your Agile Business Analysis Specialist Certificate will provide you with a distinct advantage in the world of agile software development.

Courses

Certificate
  • DAS Certificate
  • Decision Automation Specialist
  • Earning your Decision Automation Certificate will empower you to excel in the dynamic field of automated decision-making, where data-driven insights are pivotal to driving business innovation and efficiency.