Services

Working Draft

A few words about Use Cases and how they relate to our work on VRM.

Definitions

First, A Use Case is a distinct, complete transaction between a user and the system.

Transaction

a user initiated interaction with the system to produce a specific benefit.

User

any entity, human or automated, that initiates and drives a transaction in order to create value for itself or its beneficiary. Users include end-users, administrators, vendors, vendor's CRM systems, and customers. Users are sometimes referred to as an actor in Use Case literature. Every VRM Service will be developed with specific focal users in mind while incorporating the needs of all supported users.

System

A complete service that provides a bundled set of functionality for users. VRM Services implement a few focal use cases and multiple supporting use cases in order to provide value to users. Think of services as a convenient way to organize VRM functionality into implementable systems.

The Use Model

Second, in developing a complete VRM Standard, we will create several Use Case-related documents, which will define exactly what value the system will product for which users. These documents together comprise the Use Model for the Standard.

Users Specification

A list of all Users supported by the system, specifying one or two focal users.

User Map

A visual representation of the supported users and their relationship to one another.

User Profiles

A detailed description of each user's expectations, capability, and requirements for the system. Developed to enough detail to distinguish what this particular user needs from the system design.

High Level Use Cases

A list of all supported use cases in the system, identifying all focal and required use cases by title, ordered by priority.

Scenarios

Prose descriptions of a user's interaction with the system as one example of the Use Case that explains the context, the interaction, and the benefit. Each Use Case requires at least one Scenario.

Abstract Use Case Narratives

An implementation and technology-free chronological ordering of user intention and system responsibilities for a particular use case. Based on one or more specific Scenarios,

Third, we propose that any implementation that fully implements the Use Model for a VRM Service, including all constraints and interoperability requirements, meets the VRM Standard for that Service.