Software package for Use Case Description Generation

Interview with:
Prof. Antonello Monti, Director of the Institute for Automation of Complex Power System
RWTH Aachen University

Interviewer: Antonello Monti, the Software package for Use Case Description Generation is one of the key results of the Platone project whose development was coordinated by consortium partner RWTH Aachen University. Let´s assume I am a member of the research and innovation department at a German DSO. Our DSO is quite often involved in different research projects to develop advanced solutions for grid management. Is there a SW tool that can help us in this regard? Typically for such research projects and during the early phases, we use texts and graphics to describe and shape our use cases.  

Antonello Monti: I am glad that you are asking. There actually exists an open source Software Package for Use Case Description Generation which can exactly meet your demands. The purpose of the tool is to support development of Use Case descriptions, to map existing Use Case descriptions produced by commercial tools into a usable, open format and to provide an open repository for Use Cases. It makes Use Case development cheaper than using commercial tools and enables sharing and re-use of Use Cases.

Antonello Monti: The tool uses GitHub as the web tool and repository for developing and storing the UCs. The GitHub has two repositories: a project-specific development environment in GitHub where UCs can be worked on, as well as a general-purpose repository for UCs from different projects, called the Smart Grid Use Case Repository. The  repository  has  the  potential  to  be  a  valuable  knowledge  base  for  use  cases.  Also, its use is not limited to Smart Grid Use Cases, it could be applied in other contexts.

Interviewer: So, who is exactly the target group of this software package?

Antonello Monti: The target group is developers of new use cases and users of existing use cases. The developers may be in industry or academic researchers.  In  particular,  the  tool  has  been  adopted  by  the  Data Management  working  group  of  BRIDGE  for  use  in  future  EU  projects.  The tool addresses the need identified by BRIDGE to create a European repository of all existing and new use cases to facilitate the exchange of knowledge among projects. In such a way, not only you but also others have access to the repositories and can figure it synergies more efficiently.

Antonello Monti: The Smart Grid Use Case Repository is automatically generated from the UC development environment by a toolchain using the open-source Hugo2 and Docsy3 tools.