Bulldozer00's Blog

Before the invention of the formal “Use Case“, and the less formal “User Story“, the classic way of integrating, structuring, and recording requirements was via the super-formal Software Requirements Specification (SRS). Like “agile” was a backlash against “waterfall“, the lightweight “Use Case” was a major diss against the heavyweight “SRS“.

However, instead of replacing SRSs with Use Cases, I surmise that many companies have shot themselves in the foot by requiring the expensive and time consuming generation and maintenance of both types of artifacts. Instead of decreasing the cost/time and increasing the quality of the requirements engineering process, they most likely have done the opposite – losing ground to smarter competitors who do one or the other effectively. D’oh! Is your company one of them?