A use case is a structured description of the interactions between a user, known as an actor, and a system to achieve a specific goal. It documents the step-by-step process an actor follows to complete an activity, detailing both the ideal path and potential exceptions or errors. This methodology is used in system analysis and software engineering to identify, clarify, and organize a system's functional requirements from the end-user's perspective.
Use cases are crucial for defining a system's functional requirements from an end-user's point of view. They create a shared understanding among all stakeholders, from developers to executives. This alignment ensures the final product solves real-world problems effectively and meets business goals.
By outlining every possible user interaction, use cases help manage project scope and prevent feature creep. They also identify potential errors and exceptions early, reducing risks and costly rework later. This makes them a vital foundation for designing test cases and user documentation.
Use cases can be applied across various industries to map out system functionality. They provide a clear blueprint for how users will interact with a system to achieve their goals. These scenarios range from simple, everyday tasks to complex business processes.
While both describe user-system interactions, use cases and user stories serve different purposes in product development.
Use cases offer a structured framework with numerous advantages throughout the project lifecycle. By translating user needs into clear, actionable requirements, they ensure the final product is both functional and aligned with business objectives. This detailed approach bridges the communication gap between technical and business teams.
To create effective use cases, it's essential to follow a structured approach that ensures clarity and completeness. Adhering to best practices helps teams accurately capture all requirements and align on the project's direction.
How detailed should a use case be?
The level of detail depends on the project's complexity and stakeholder needs. It should be comprehensive enough to guide development and testing without getting lost in technical implementation specifics. The focus should always remain on the user's goal and the system's functional requirements.
Are use cases still relevant in Agile development?
Absolutely. While user stories are common in Agile, use cases provide the necessary detail for complex features. They supplement stories by outlining all interaction paths, including exceptions, ensuring comprehensive coverage and reducing ambiguity for the development team.
Can a use case have multiple actors?
Yes, a use case can involve multiple actors. A primary actor initiates the use case to achieve a goal, while secondary actors are other systems or users the system interacts with to complete the process. This helps map complex, multi-user workflows.
"Smile and dial" is a high-volume sales tactic where reps make numerous cold calls from a list, often with little to no prior research.
Account management is the post-sales practice of building and nurturing long-term relationships with a company's most valuable clients.
An Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of rules that lets different software applications talk to each other and share information.
A value statement is a clear, concise declaration of the unique benefits a company provides to its customers, outlining its core purpose.
Virtual selling is the process of selling to customers remotely using technology like video calls, rather than meeting them in person.
Learn about browser compatibility, including understanding the importance, common challenges, best practices, & tools for testing.
CPM, or Cost Per Mille, is a key advertising metric. It's the cost an advertiser pays for one thousand views or impressions of a single ad.
CRM enrichment is the process of adding third-party data to your existing customer profiles to make them more complete and accurate.
Customer Retention Cost (CRC) is the total amount a company spends to keep an existing customer over a certain period of time.
A lead list is a curated database of potential customers (leads) with contact information and other key data for sales and marketing outreach.
A sales presentation is a formal pitch by a salesperson to a prospective customer, showcasing a product or service to secure a sale.
A Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is a concise statement that clearly communicates the unique benefit a customer gets from your product or service.
Overcoming objections is the process of addressing and resolving a prospect's concerns or hesitations to move a sale forward.
Territory management is the process of segmenting customers into groups by geography or other factors to optimize sales efforts and resources.
A sales strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines how a business will sell its products or services to achieve its revenue goals.
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a markup language for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium tool helping sales teams find and engage with the right leads and accounts on the LinkedIn network.
A Customer Data Platform (CDP) centralizes customer data from all sources to create a complete, unified profile for each individual customer.
Unit economics are the direct revenues and costs of a business calculated on a per-unit basis, revealing its fundamental profitability.
An Operational CRM is a system that automates and improves customer-facing business processes like sales, marketing, and customer service.
Drupal is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) for building websites and applications. It's known for its robust flexibility.
The decision stage is where a well-researched buyer chooses a vendor. They compare specific products and pricing before making their final purchase.
An Account Executive (AE) is a sales professional responsible for closing new business deals and managing existing client relationships to drive revenue.
Outbound lead generation means proactively reaching out to potential customers who haven't yet expressed interest to introduce them to your brand.
Accessibility testing is a software testing method that verifies an application is usable by people with disabilities, like vision or hearing loss.
Process Builder is a Salesforce automation tool that lets you create 'if/then' business processes with a user-friendly visual interface.
Touches are the individual interactions you have with a prospect throughout the sales process, from emails and calls to social media messages.
Warm outreach is contacting prospects with whom you have a pre-existing connection, like a mutual contact, making your message more personal and effective.
Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) is the ideal order quantity a company should purchase to minimize its total inventory-related costs.
Account View-Through Rate (AVTR) is the percentage of target accounts that see an ad and later visit your website without clicking on it.
Sales coaching is a process where managers help reps improve their skills and performance through personalized feedback, training, and guidance.
Email personalization uses subscriber data—like their name, interests, or past behavior—to create highly relevant and targeted email campaigns.
X-Sell, or cross-selling, is a sales strategy of selling additional, related products or services to an existing customer base.
Data hygiene is the practice of ensuring your customer data is clean, accurate, and up-to-date by removing duplicates and correcting errors.
CRM integration connects your CRM software with other tools, creating a unified system for all your customer data and business processes.
Learn about B2B demand generation strategy, including key elements of demand generation, & crafting your demand generation plan.
Inbound sales attracts interested prospects who've engaged with your brand, letting sales reps connect with warm leads instead of cold outreach.
Inbound leads are potential customers who proactively reach out after finding your business through content, social media, or search.
Docker is a tool that packages applications and their dependencies into isolated environments called containers for easy deployment and scaling.
A firewall is a digital barrier that protects a network by monitoring and controlling traffic, blocking unauthorized access and malicious content.
The FAB technique is a sales framework connecting product features to advantages and then to the specific benefits for the customer.
Rapport building is the process of establishing a connection and mutual understanding with someone, creating a foundation of trust and affinity.
Learn about buyer intent data, including sourcing and interpreting buyer intent data, & key metrics in buyer intent analysis.
Sales Operations Management streamlines sales processes, tech, and data analysis to help sales teams sell more effectively and efficiently.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search results.
Integration testing is a software testing phase where individual modules are combined and tested together to verify their interaction.
Marketing performance is the process of measuring a campaign's effectiveness against set goals using key metrics like ROI and conversion rates.
White labeling is when a company puts its own branding on a product or service that was actually produced by a different company.
Deal closing is the final step in a sales cycle. It's when a prospect signs a contract and officially converts into a paying customer.
Ad-hoc reporting is the creation of one-off reports to answer specific business questions as they arise, providing instant, targeted insights.
Sales velocity is a key metric measuring the speed at which your company makes money. It shows how fast deals move through your sales pipeline.
Edge locations are globally distributed data centers that cache content close to users, reducing latency and delivering web content much faster.
A warm email is a message sent to a prospect with whom you have a pre-existing connection, like a mutual contact or a prior interaction.
Workflow automation uses rule-based logic to run a sequence of tasks that would otherwise require manual human effort to complete.
Price optimization is the process of finding the ideal price for a product or service to maximize profitability or other business objectives.
Sales team management is the process of leading, coaching, and motivating a sales team to achieve its sales goals and drive revenue growth.
User interaction is any action a user takes within a digital interface, like clicking a button, scrolling a page, or filling out a form.
CRM analytics is the process of analyzing data from your CRM to uncover insights that help you better understand and serve your customers.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is the predictable, recurring income a business expects to receive each month from all active subscriptions.
CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is the code that styles a website. It controls the colors, fonts, layout, and overall look of a web page.
Consumer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy for managing all of a company's relationships and interactions with its customers.
Loss aversion is our tendency to feel the sting of a loss more acutely than the pleasure of an equivalent gain.
Mobile optimization adapts your website to ensure visitors on smartphones and tablets have a seamless, user-friendly experience.
Learn about business process management, including benefits of implementing BPM, steps to effective BPM, common BPM mistakes to avoid, & BPM tools and software.
A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of something, like a webpage or email, to determine which one performs better with your audience.
Freemium is a business model offering a product's basic features for free, while charging for advanced or supplemental features.
The Dark Funnel describes customer buying activities that are untrackable by companies, such as private chats and word-of-mouth referrals.
Guided selling simplifies complex sales by giving reps step-by-step instructions and data-driven recommendations to close deals faster.
Geo-fencing creates a virtual boundary around a real-world location. It triggers actions on a device when it enters or exits this area.
No Forms is a method for capturing lead data directly from your website visitors' profiles without requiring them to fill out any forms.
A sales pitch is a persuasive presentation of a product or service, aimed at convincing a potential customer to make a purchase.
A Sales Manager leads a sales team, setting goals, analyzing performance, and developing strategies to drive revenue and meet targets.
A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contract defining the level of service between a provider and a client, including metrics and penalties.
A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a prospect who has shown interest based on marketing efforts but isn't yet ready for a sales conversation.
Lead Velocity Rate (LVR) is the growth rate of your qualified leads, measured month-over-month. It's a key indicator of future revenue.
Intent-based leads are potential customers whose online actions—like searches or content engagement—signal a clear interest in buying a solution.
A sales playbook is a guide that outlines your sales process, best practices, and tools to help reps sell more efficiently and consistently.
Site retargeting is a marketing strategy that shows ads to people who have previously visited your website but left without converting.
Learn about brag book, including crafting your outstanding brag book, essential components of a brag book, & brag book vs. resume: unveiling the differences.
CRM data is the information businesses use to manage customer relationships. It covers contact details, purchase history, and communication logs.
A sales kickoff (SKO) is an annual event for a sales team to celebrate wins, align on goals, and get motivated for the upcoming year.
Account Click-Through Rate (CTR) is the percentage of individuals from a target account who click on a link in an ad, email, or on a webpage.
Learn about B2B intent data, including how B2B intent data enhances sales strategies, sources of B2B intent data, leveraging B2B intent data for competitiveness.
Average Revenue per User (ARPU) is a key performance indicator that calculates the average revenue generated from each user or subscriber.
Gamification applies game mechanics like points, badges, and leaderboards to non-game activities to boost engagement and motivate users.
Personalization in sales means tailoring outreach to a prospect's specific needs, interests, and context to make communication more relevant.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) software helps teams coordinate personalized marketing and sales efforts to land high-value customer accounts.
A dialer is software that automatically dials phone numbers for agents, boosting call efficiency and connecting them to live prospects faster.
A sales process is a structured set of steps that a sales team follows to move a prospect from an initial lead to a closed customer.
Omnichannel marketing creates a seamless, unified customer experience by integrating a company's various communication and sales channels.
A freemium model offers a product's basic features for free, enticing users to upgrade to a paid version for more advanced capabilities.
Mobile app analytics involves collecting and analyzing data from mobile apps to understand user behavior and optimize the app's performance.
Sales and marketing analytics involves measuring and analyzing performance data to maximize effectiveness and optimize return on investment (ROI).
Product-Led Growth (PLG) is a business strategy where the product itself drives user acquisition, conversion, and expansion.
Dynamic pricing is a strategy where businesses set flexible prices for products or services based on current market demands and other factors.
The buying process is the journey a customer takes from first realizing a need to making a final purchase decision and evaluating it afterward.
A Data Management Platform (DMP) is a tech platform used to collect and manage data, mainly for digital marketing and advertising campaigns.
A stakeholder is any individual, group, or party that has an interest in an organization and the outcomes of its actions.
Learn about buyer, including identifying your ideal buyer, understanding buyer's journey, & evaluating buyer decision processes.
Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting computer systems, networks, and data from digital attacks, theft, and unauthorized access.