Capturing Business Transaction Requirements in Use Case Models

A significant portion of our modem economy is dependent on the reliability and usability of enterprise applications (EAs) of which business transactions and concurrency management are central concepts. The correct orchestration of subordinate system transactions forming a business transaction, as well as proper concurrency conflict resolution strategies are crucial factors. In this paper we argue that modeling business transactions and concurrency management are a domain activity and as such, are to be analyzed and documented during the requirements phase. Failing to do so can have a significant negative effect on the usability of an application. Driven by our own experiences in writing use cases for EAs, we demonstrate how business transactions can be modeled within use case specifications. Concrete examples and usage guidelines are offered as well as a demonstration of how our approach helps contribute to the difficult task of requirements elicitation.