how to include an use case which is activated by another use case only?

Question

I have a roster application written in VBA. I want to model it in UML.

The business rules are that:

1. We have 3 shift for each day(A, B, C).

2. We have 5 colleagues who work in shift duty.

3. We have blacklist shift sequence (e.g. after C/night shift, staff cannot attempt morning(a) and afternoon(b) shift on next day.)

Here is the function description.

Find missing shift - It is used to check whether any shift(s) is/are not allocated on each day.

Find duplicate shift - It is used to check whether any duplicated shift(s) is/are not allocated on each day.

The auto planner - It allocates an operator to each shift base on each staff inputted requirement and blacklist shift

Because the check blacklist feature does not interact with the user directly, should I "include" the check blacklist feature as another use case?

Answer 1

Use cases are no functions. Full stop.

A use case is always an added value the system under consideration brings to one of its actor(s). Autoplanner is does not have a valid use case name. It must be in the form predicate-subject(-object). And according to your edited question it should be named "Allocate operator to shift base". Check all now looks ok after your edit as it's probably a shortcut to perform a couple of other use cases in one turn. Finally "Check black list shift" is no use case but just a function/step in the "Check all" use case scenario.

I'd recommend you read Bittner/Spence about use cases. This book once put me on track.