Business Use cases vs Product use cases

[Jack]

Hi there,

I was wondering whether you could help me understand the difference
between a business use case and a product use case.

I'm currently working on an internet project, the objective is to
upgrade the existing content management system, the business require
the same functions that are currently provided. See example below

One of the events is a customer registers their interest in joining.
The existing process is the member completes an online form and
submits the request. An email is autoamtically sent to a back office
group who manually process the request in a separate system then
responds to the customer by phone.
The proposed future process will be similar only we don't want to
specifically mention email, just that the back office group are
notified of the request. They will manually process the request and
contact the customer by phone.

The question I have is "Would you consider this to be a business use
case or Product use case or both?".

My initial thoughts are:
The business event 'Customer registers their interest in joining'
Business use case 'Manage customer interest request'
Product use case 'Send notfication of request'

Your thoughts regarding this would be much appreciated.

Regards

[James Robertson]

Jack,

simply put, a business use case (hereinafter BUC) is *everything* your
piece of the business does in response to a business event. In your
example, the business event is "Customer registers interest". This is
a typical business event - it starts outside your business and outside
your control.

The BUC is what your business does in response to this: assist the
customer to fill in the form, file the information on the customer,
get one of the back office staff to contact the customer.

That's the BUC. The PUC is whichever parts of the BUC you choose to do
with your product - probably help the customer to fill in the form,
file it and alert the next-in-line staff member.

Unless you automate them, the human activities stay outside the PUC.

I hope this helps.

James