Use Case rage

Today I went to a workshop to confirm business requirements with our client, for a new project I have just started working on. One of the activities on the agenda was to go through each use case in detail, allocating roles to each attendee, and acting out scenarios as specified in the requirements. I felt like Drama classes all over again – splendid.

All was going well, as we sat around the table sporting fluorescent Post-It notes with our respective titles. However things got a bit heated during one role play. One of the actors disagreed with one use case so much that he refused to act out his part. He held onto the fictitious “document”, unwilling to perform his duty to submit the document to the other party, who by now sat dejected at the other end of the table, hand outstretched in apathetic deliverance.

“If I hand this over, it is wrong, and I refuse to play this part!” the actor exclaimed, despite pleas from the others that it was only “a game” and he should just go through with it. After all, the whole point of the exercise was to identify these flaws and re-specify accordingly.

But as I watched the redness creep up from under his collar and cover his already balding pate, it seemed this meant nothing to him. It was about integrity, sticking to your guns, validating your belief systems.

I’m starting to like this new role.