In this exercise, you will perform an initial iteration of use-case analysis for a classified ad system intended for use by students (and other campus community members) at a college like Gustavus. To really develop the requirements for such a system, you would need to have conversations with all the stakeholders: not only students, but also other potential users (faculty, staff) and whoever is going to be responsible for administering the system (setting policies, dealing with exceptional situations, responding to complaints, etc.). Since this is not possible in our classroom environment, we will do the next best thing, which is have you work in groups of 3 to 4 students to brainstorm the requirements, so that at least you have the experience of developing requirements within the context of a conversation, rather than on your own.
During class today, you will do the initial brainstorming. You should identify actors and goals, prepare a list of use-case names, and try to talk about at least one or two of the use cases at least along the lines of the "brief" form, perhaps even the "casual."
By the due date (Friday), you should work individually to flesh out an initial use-case document. That document should include overall information on the actors, goals, and use cases, perhaps illustrated with a UML use-case diagram. It should also include information about each use case you identified. For at least one of those use cases, you should describe the use case in Larman's "fully dressed" form. In other words, you should try to spell out this use case in detail, though you recognize that it will be revised as development proceeds. If you only include one fully-dressed use case, then you should also include at least one "casual" use case where you briefly describe some alternative scenarios. Beyond these first two use cases, all the remaining ones can be left in the "brief" form where you just describe the main scenario.
You may produce your use-case document using whatever tools are comfortable for you. Depending what you choose, you can email me a link to the online document, email me the document itself, or turn in a hardcopy.