Why am I on this site I have these tools and I don't know what to do with them?

Rhational Rhapsody 7.5
SVN
Tortise

I was thinking to get me going I would put to togeather a view of a system to acheive the lattest google challenge. You know the one to get a something to the moon surfice and then send back a transmision.

Ill start with the use cases and work down, If I do it in conjuntion with this site maybe I will get some help and learn to use forums?

I notice that the banner at the top say's Rhapsody "Indepent rational rhapsody forum", is it? If it is that's good right?

Right I am going to go and make the use cases, using a pencil and paper. In the mean time can anyone recomend a free view Rhapsody UML tool that I can install at home?

Ok I got a version of the Rhapsody Modeller Edition going - and I have attached my top level use case - any comments I think its right - I think next ill make a sequence diagram based on the UC to show some interaction?

Sod it going to bed, ill do some more later.

Your Use Case Diagram is symantically incorrect. Relationships between Use Cases are dependencies and occasionally generalisations. You also need to show the actors for it to make any sense.

I am also new to modeling and have been doing a lot of reading on Dr. Peter Hoffman's Harmony Process. My impression is that there are very few top level use cases and that use case associations are not recommended.

It seemed appropriate to me to create <<includes>> relationship between your use cases. However, if the associations are not recommended these items would then become activities under the main use case.

I would like to hear any one elses opinion on the best approuch.

I've been involved in hours of discussion over many years on this topic.

The first thing to say is that it is very important, in fact it is essential, to model well at the analysis, or Use Case, level. Modelling well means creating Use Cases that are truely use cases and, most importantly, identifying the actors correctly. That's a difficult thing to do. I could now go into loads of reasoning as to what constitutes a good use case and actor but, from experience, it seems that those who know, know, and those who don't have to learn the hard way. The feedback from the next stages of your model will indicate if you've got it 'right' and even experienced modelers rarely get it right without this feedback.

So....

My advice is to start with one use case for your system and as few actors as possible, identify the scenarios and create the behavioural aspects of the actors and use case with state charts. As your statecharts become complicated you may start to identify ways of splitting them up in terms of the scenarios they support. Working this way will mean that you won't identify your final use cases until someway through your project. Keep in mind that on any particular day your model simply represents your team's understanding of the project. Oh, and by the way, don't think you can use case model on your own - it's a team activity.