In an earlier post, I discussed a presentation I had attended by Richard Denney and mentioned that his book, Succeeding With Use Cases: Working Smart to Deliver Quality, was on my reading list. I’ve now read it, and it’s a good read. The book does a great job of taking academic, involved principles and distilling them to practical application. A great example of Denney’s tone is in his preface; he has a section titled “For Those Who Hate Math” that warns the reader about the chapters of the book that involve real math.
As a product manager, some of the chapters were less interesting to me, such as those on leveraging use cases for testing. But, in his preface Denney had noted which chapters would be of interest to the various roles within software development. The chapters I most enjoyed were the ones that explored how to use Use Cases to:
- Drive a vision vertically through a project.
- Align an organization horizontally.
- Quantify the frequency of use of use cases.
There is no surprise that these were some of the chapters Denney recommended for product managers.
If my earlier post made you curious, or if the chapter topics I enjoyed intrigue you, check out the book.
