Use Case

By Deane Barker

Literally “a case for usage”; a description of a usage scenario.

Narrowly, a use case can be used as a requirement, which is a specific, defined feature that needs to be present in a piece of software.

Mary needs to able to create a blog post and schedule it for publication in the future.

More broadly, a use case can be an aggregate scenario that a software package is meant to address. Many CMS specialize in one or more use cases.

The following use cases are very general examples:

  • Website: A catchall for most broad, generic type of website. Content is published one-way, usually organized hierarchically, with multiple sections and sub-sections, and usually no user generated content. Simpler manifestations of this type of site are known as brochureware.
  • Intranet: An secured, internal website for disseminating organizational information to employees.
  • Extranet: A secured website for disseminating information to external users affiliated with an organization (e.g. – dealers, partners, contractors, etc.)
  • Blog: A publishing website characterized by relatively frequent, time-stamped “posts”, usually organized in reverse chronological order. Short for “web log.” Often has UCG in the form of comments, and makes content available via RSS.
  • Wiki: A collaborative website used for documentation of related information. Characterized by a flat page structure, little aggregate content organization, frequent links between pages, and a relatively open editing policy.
  • Community: A collaborative website intended mainly to host user-generated content. Users might be able to create their own spaces to publish their own blogs or other content.

Also, see Enterprise Content Management System and Digital Asset Management System.

This is item #92 in a sequence of 103 items.

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