Repost: Use Cases vs User Scenarios

September 21st, 2009 | Product Management

This is a repost of a post that I did on the Product Management View. There were some interesting comments on the original.

Finally, documented clarity around the difference between use cases and user scenarios.

Let me summarize the difference. A use case is a step-by-step account of system behaviour associated with one or more actors. A user scenario is concrete description of a very specific interaction, but one that is chosen to be typical or representative. OK, now what does that mean?

Use cases are very detailed and typically define the actors, a brief description, pre-conditions, the main flow (i.e. happy path) and any alternate flows, sub-flows and exception flows. It will also describe the state of the system at the end of each flow, happy or otherwise (i.e. post-condition).

User scenarios are slightly more creative. They are typically narrative versus the bulleted / numbered form of a use case. They incorporate individual user characteristics (i.e. a persona) while outlining the tasks undertaken to achieve goals. Essentially, you tell a short story about your persona interactiing with your product.

Product Managers will survey their external stakeholders, end users, customers and prospects to determine what the system will do and how it will be used. This is captured in the form of user scenarios, first informally, then expressed more formally in a use case model. At the end of the day, the differences are very minor but you can start to see how they are relevant and important to the software development process.

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed to receive future updates. You can also follow me on Twitter. Tell other people about this post.