It is rare to find a book today that imparts as much information and experience per page as Writing Effective Use Cases by Alistair Cockburn. Its strength lies in the combination of the author's practical ideas and insights into the often confusing world of use cases. It is clear the author knows about which he speaks - Mr. Cockburn presents his practice based ideas succinctly, and evidences his expertise with the subject through such illustrative chapter and section headings as:

• Your Use Case is Not My Use Case
• The Use Case as a Contract for Behavior
• Three Named Goal Levels (Relating to different levels of use cases)
• When are We Done?
• The Missing Requirements
• and others.

As a notable expert in the field, Mr. Cockburn could rightly claim oracle status, however, it is refreshing that he remains humble enough to admit that he doesn't have all the answers. Acknowledging the myriad of approaches to use cases does not weaken this book, in fact, the statement strengthens it. The book is presented as "a technique guide, describing the nuts-and-bolts of use case writing. Although you can use the techniques on almost any project, the templates and writing standards must be selected according to each project's needs." Sage advice, indeed.

I was pleasantly surprised by the fact, that from the beginning, (starting with the inside cover), the author practices what he preaches. An example of this is how the aim of the book is achieved (Aim: "To be a self-study guide to writing good (i.e., usable) use cases"), through having the inside cover be a quick reference summary to both the symbols and the key concepts presented later.