Here is an AI-generated definition of a Use Case.

In the world of software development and system design, a use case is a narrative describing how a user interacts with a system to achieve a specific goal. It outlines the steps involved, the actors (users or external systems), and the expected outcomes. Here’s a breakdown of its key aspects:

Understanding Use Cases:

User-centric: Use cases focus on the user’s perspective and their interaction with the system. Goal-oriented: They capture how users achieve specific goals using the system’s functionalities. Step-by-step: Each use case defines a sequence of steps outlining the interaction flow. Actors involved: It identifies the user roles or external systems involved in the interaction. Success and failure scenarios: Both successful and potential failure scenarios are considered. Benefits of Use Cases:

Clear requirements: Defining use cases helps document and clarify system requirements from the user’s perspective.

mproved communication: They provide a common ground for communication between developers, designers, and stakeholders.

Prioritization: Use cases enable prioritizing functionalities based on their importance to users. Testing and validation: They serve as test cases for system functionality and user interaction.Documentation: Use cases serve as valuable documentation for future reference and system enhancements.Types of Use Cases:

Primary use cases: Describe the typical and successful interactions with the system. Alternative use cases: Capture variations or less frequent scenarios the system should handle. Exception use cases: Address potential errors or unusual situations and the system’s behavior. Example of a Use Case:

Use case: Purchase a product online

Actor: Customer

Goal: Buy a specific product from an e-commerce website.

Steps:

Browse the website and search for the desired product.

Add the product to the shopping cart.

Enter shipping and billing information.

Choose a payment method and complete the purchase.

Receive confirmation and order tracking information.

Success: Order is placed successfully and product is delivered as expected.

Failure scenarios: Product is out of stock, payment fails, system error during checkout.

Remember: Use cases are valuable tools for understanding user needs, defining system requirements, and ensuring a user-centered approach to system design and development.

The definition and example are sound, but when it comes to accurately describing what needs to be done from a systematic perspective, it lacks critical documentation, which is the description of data transformations.

Data Transformation

Most use cases describe events within the business process system that involve taking data and transforming it into other kinds of data. Sending an invoice PDF is an example of this. Assuming a user pushes a button to invoke this, the system takes data that describes the invoice (usually in the form of system tables) and pushes that data through a variety of processes that destroy much of the tabular structure of the invoice but make it user readable in form of a PDF file.

It’s a good thing that most high-level systems, such as Zoho, handle the vast majority of data transformations for us without our having to think of them. The example above is one of them. (The application has a send invoice button associated with the invoice. On pressing, the user is prompted to choose an invoice template, and with a few more requests for information, the back end not only converts the invoice into PDF format (transformation) but makes a file of it (transformation) and attaches it to an email (transformation) and sends the email (another transformation)).

There are, however, transformations we need to define. In Zoho CRM, the lead module has a button (not removable) labeled Convert. Pressing it causes the system to copy data from the lead record and transform it into a contact, and perhaps an account and deal as well. Deeply buried In CRM’s application settings is an option for defining lead conversion mappings. In it, administrators define exactly what fields in the lead record get moved (transformed) into the contact record and perhaps the account or deal records. Whenever you add or remove fields from the lead module, the conversion mapping needs attention.

Not every use case we write will require a data transformation description, but many will. Good signs that one (or more) is required will almost always be when the use case concerns integrations, whether Zoho to Zoho or third-party to Zoho. Using web forms to insert into our lead table is a good example. There is data from the form. Where does each piece of data go in the lead? Use cases that involve workflows should also alert us to the possibility of a transformation. Sending emails is an example. How? The email template, subject, and content are part of the transformation. To define a use case for a workflow that sends email from a template without defining the template content and subject and merge fields leaves out half of the equation.

There is no perfect way to define a data transformation for a use case because they can be quite different (or just unnecessary). Sometimes, a sentence will do. In more complex transformations, spreadsheets can be the most appropriate way of defining (and visualizing) many of our transformations (and sometimes, the definition is in the tool itself, think lead conversion mappings). Whatever the means of documentation, we need to think about and define the source data fields, what they are called (if known), and what data type they are (generally string, date, datetime, email, phone, multi-select). We must do the same for the destination data fields and then match up a source field with a destination field. When life is good, this is a simple one-to-one matching, but sometimes we must combine source fields into a single destination field or vice versa. We need to consider the required fields on the destination side. Does the source data have something for those fields? We need to think about field-type conversions. Often, incoming data (usually numeric/currency in nature) isn’t necessarily a natural fit for the data field it is being converted to (columns with $,, formatting being converted to currency fields in Zoho are a classic example, dates too).

As you write your use cases for your Zoho implementation, don’t forget those data transformations. If you are doing the implementation, it’s always helpful to have them spelled out in your documentation, and if someone else is doing the implementation, it is critical.