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I'm making a use case diagram for a new system. I'm wondering when a system should be included as an actor in use case diagram?
Thanks.
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Actors. A use case diagram shows the interaction between the system and entities external to the system. These external entities are referred to as actors. Actors represent roles which may include human users, external hardware or other systems.
Don't go out of your way to create include and extend relationships always double check - if no actor is using the use case you are including or extending and no other use case is using it then you absolutely don't need it. Show activity on this post. Use case is always a scenario executed by actor(s).
The actor is an entity that interacts with the system. A user is the best example of an actor. An actor is an entity that initiates the use case from outside the scope of a use case. It can be any element that can trigger an interaction with the use case.
As stated in another answer, an actor is a system or role interacting with the system under development. You should include a system as an actor in a use case if it is outside the system you are developing, and if it directly interacts with the system you are developing.
This is important because you need to define the boundary of your system, which means its scope and interfaces. Including a system as an actor will clearly state the requirement for your system under development to provide a suitable interface for that actor system.
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Different people have different philosophies about how to correctly model in UML (which is not surprising since UML was standardized by committee).
I use actors to capture every "thing" (type of person, type of system) that can interact with the system I am designing and find them useful to create a common understanding among all stakeholders of how the new system will be interacted with.
I suggest creating an actor for everything you know will interact with the system, and trace that actor to every use case the actor can execute. That way, you gain a full understanding of who can do what.
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