Optimum Use Case

I've never really written a use case before, but I thought I would try it, in order to focus on the usage of the system I intend to develop. This is a single use-case, which covers the optimal experience of the system, which intends to be a better experience than I am able to implement.


Introducing Stevie...
Stevie works on a large project which has been in development for many years. In an effort to improve overall quality of the code, Stevie attempts to introduce Findbugs. Stevie is aware that Findbugs may generate a lot of noise, particularly for a large codebase.

Stevie configures Findbugs and analyses his project. Upon analysing, Stevie inspects the analysis using a Findbugs UI. He sees that Findbugs has discovered a large number of potential bugs (approximately 5,000). Knowing that it is likely the majority of reports do not need to be acted on, and that it is necessary to make the best use of his time, he attempts to find the best way to use Findbugs.

Optimum Experience
Upon navigating the Findbugs UI for the first time, Stevie discovers a "Train Findbugs On Your Codebase" option. Upon selection, a dialog screen is presented. This dialog contains information on the estimated time it will take for Findbugs to calculate the best training data. Being unfamiliar with this option, Stevie selects an option to display help information on the purpose of training, when it should be done, what the user should do, and how long it should take. Stevie decides to use the training option, notes that it may take a while to begin training, selects the options for Findbugs to calculate the training data. When a progress bar is displayed, which reports that Findbugs has begun calculating training data, he decides to carry on with other work.

After the estimated time elapses, Stevie returns to Findbugs to see that it has calculated the training data, and that training can begin. Since it has taken a while to calculate training data, Stevie has forgotten what he should be doing. He selects the context help available in training mode, he navigates the help to find that he should begin to classify bug alerts. The help also states that while the more he trains the data the better the ordering of the 5,000 reports will be, he can stop at any time and begin classifying the bugs which are likely to be the most important to him. The context help also suggests the number of alerts to classify before ending the training, and informs Stevie of an interface control which he can monitor to see if he has reached this point. Stevie closes the context help menu to return to the training interface.

Stevie views the list of alerts and inspects the first. He spends some time viewing the description of the bug, as provided by Findbugs, looking at the code, and finally judges whether this should be fixed or not. He selects an option from the UI to classify the bug as one which should be fixed, but is low priority. Although the UI allows him to store a short, free-text message to leave as a reason for his decision, he decides not to leave a reason, and confirms his classification. The alert is then removed from the list, and the UI is updated to show the next alert in the list. Stevie repeats this process several times, making note of the number of alerts he has classified, and how many more Findbugs suggests to classify. When Stevie has classified about half the amount Findbugs suggests, he selects the "End Training" option. This presents a help dialog which informs him that he may return to the training mode where he left off, and continue to train Findbugs. Stevie reads the message and selects the "Do not show this message again" option, ignores the "Cancel" option and selects a "Confirm" option, which takes him out of training mode back to the original list of alerts. Stevie changes the ordering of the list, which is defaulted based on bug type, choosing an "Order Based On Training" option. A dialog informs Stevie that this may take a while to compute, suggests an expected amount of time, offering a confirm or cancel option. Stevie selects the "Don't show this message again" option, selects "Confirm", sees the progress bar, and waits for Findbugs to complete processing.

Once Findbugs has completed, Stevie views the list of alerts. He sees the UI controls which show how likely the first alert is one expected to be important to Stevie. As he inspects the first alert and classifies it, he sees that the list of alerts changes its order slightly, and he is presented with the next alert in the list. Stevie continues to inspect bug alerts until he begins to encounter several alerts which he is not concerned about, at this point, he inspects the UI controls to see that the remaining alerts are not likely to be ones he cares about. Stevie decides that he has inspected enough, and found enough issues to be raised with other developers on the project. He saves the analysis and exits the program.