Enterprise Architect - How do I make a (very simple) Use Case Diagram

Question

I was just asked to produce a Use Case Diagram for a project in Enterprise Architect. As I have very very little experience of EA I am facing extreme frustration. It feels like nothing works as you would expect it to i EA. My tactics are to try out everything, click here, click there, read yet another crappy tutorial telling you about UML and not about EA, click everywhere and see what happens. Yes, I have tried using the links on their page and in EA.

The most frustrating thing is that whatever I try to do EA throws up a "New Diagram" dialog in my face. It continues doing so regardless of my response. I really want to find out how EA should be used.

What I probably am looking for is a tutorial "Make a Use-case diagram in EA for dummies" showing me what to click on etc. Do you know of any?

Answer 1

Sparx Systems has a set of demonstration videos on their website and one of them just happens to be a "Basic Use Case Demonstration". The video doesn't have any sound but it shows you how to quickly and easily create a new Use Case using their Quick linker tool.

It does have some assumptions though: 1. How to get a new use case diagram up (however from your OP it seems like you have achieved this) 2. There is already an actor on the diagram. (To get one of there click the background of your diagram and hit the space bar to bring up an element context menu and select an actor) 3. This Basic Use Case Demo then should get to the rest of the way.

For a list of all demos that are on the Sparx Systems website you can see here

I hope this helps

Answer 2

If anybody else comes to this point (as I was this week) You might find the quickstart guide from Pathfinder Solutions very handy (http://pathfindersolns.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Quick-Start-Guide-Enterprise.pdf) It just guides you through the steps to create a small model without explaining why, just how.

It helped me a lot to get a basic feeling for the handling in EA.