Skip to Content

Wiki source code of 2 Actors and Use Cases

Version 1.1 by Helena on 2025/06/07 00:41
Show last authors
1 === 2.1 Introduction ===
2
3 In order to develop the data models, it is necessary to understand the functions to be supported resulting from the requirements definition. These are defined in a use case model. The use case model comprises actors and use cases and these are defined below.
4
5 ==== Actor ====
6
7 “//An actor defines a coherent set of roles that users of the system can play when interacting with it. An actor instance can be played by either an individual or an external system//”
8
9 ==== Use case ====
10
11 //“A use case defines a set of use-case instances, where each instance is a sequence of actions a system performs that yields an observable result of value to a particular actor”//
12
13 The overall intent of the model is to support data and metadata reporting, dissemination, and exchange in the field of aggregated statistical data and related metadata. In order to achieve this, the model needs to support three fundamental aspects of this process:
14
15 * Maintenance of structural and provisioning definitions
16 * Data and reference metadata publishing (reporting), and consuming (using)
17 * Access to data, reference metadata, and structural and provisioning definitions This document covers the first two aspects, whilst the document on the Registry logical model covers the last aspect.
18
19 === 2.2 Use Case Diagrams ===
20
21 ==== 2.2.1 Maintenance of Structural and Provisioning Definitions ====
22
23 ===== 2.2.1.1 Use cases =====
24
25 **Figure 7 Use cases for maintaining data and metadata structural and provisioning definitions**
26
27 ===== 2.2.1.2 Explanation of the Diagram =====
28
29 In order for applications to publish and consume data and reference metadata it is necessary for the structure and permitted content of the data and reference metadata to be defined and made available to the applications, as well as definitions that support the actual process of publishing and consuming. This is the responsibility of a Maintenance Agency.
30
31 All maintained artefacts are maintained by a Maintenance Agency. For convenience the Maintenance Agency actor is sub divided into two actor roles:
32
33 * maintaining structural definitions
34 * maintaining provisioning definitions
35
36 Whilst both these functions may be carried out by the same person, or at least by the same maintaining organization, the purpose of the definitions is different and so the roles have been differentiated: structural definitions define the format and permitted content of data and reference metadata when reported or disseminated, whilst provisioning definitions support the process of reporting and dissemination (who reports what to whom, and when).
37
38 In a community-based scenario where at least the structural definitions may be shared, it is important that the scheme of maintenance agencies is maintained by a responsible organization (called here the Community Administrator), as it is important that the Id of the Maintenance Agency is unique.
39
40 ===== 2.2.1.3 Definitions =====
41
42 |**Actor**|**Use Case**|**Description**
43 | | |Responsible organisation that administers structural definitions common to the
44 |Community Administrator| |community as a whole.
45 | |(((
46
47
48 Maintain Maintenance Agency Scheme
49
50
51 )))|Creation and maintenance of the top-level scheme of maintenance agencies for the Community.
52 |(((
53 Maintenance Agency
54
55
56 )))| |(((
57 Responsible agency for maintaining structural artefacts such as code lists, concept schemes, Data Structure Definition structural definitions, metadata structure definitions, data and metadata provisioning artefacts such as provision agreement, and submaintenance agencies.
58
59 sub roles are:
60
61 Structural Definitions Maintenance Agency Provisioning Definitions Maintenance Agency
62 )))
63 |(((
64
65
66 Structural Definitions Maintenance Agency
67
68
69 )))| |Responsible for maintaining structural definitions.
70 | |(((
71
72
73 Maintain Structure Definitions
74 )))|The maintenance of structural definitions. This use case has sub class use cases for each of the structural artefacts that are maintained.
75 | |(((
76
77
78 Maintain Code
79
80 List                         
81
82
83 MaintainConcepts
84
85
86
87
88 Maintain Category
89
90 Scheme
91
92
93
94 Maintain Data Structure Definition
95
96
97
98 Maintain Metadata Structure Definition
99
100
101
102 Maintain Hierarchical
103
104 Code Scheme    
105 )))|(((
106 Creation and maintenance of the Data Structure Definition,
107
108 Metadata Structure
109
110 Definition, and the supporting artefacts that they use, such
111
112 as code list and concepts
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137 )))
138 | |(((
139
140
141 Maintain Reporting
142
143 Taxonomy
144
145
146
147 Maintain Organisation Scheme
148
149
150
151 MaintainProcess
152
153
154
155 Maintain Dataflow
156
157 Definition                    
158
159
160 Maintain Metadataflow
161
162 Definition
163 )))|(((
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180 This includes Agency, Data Provider, Data Consumer,
181
182 and Organisation Unit
183
184 Scheme
185
186
187
188
189 )))
190 |(((
191
192
193 Provisioning Definitions
194
195 Maintenance Agency
196 )))| |Responsible for maintaining data and metadata provisioning definitions.
197 | |(((
198
199
200 Maintain Provision Agreement
201 )))|The maintenance of provisioning definitions.
202
203
204
205 **Figure 8: Table of Actors and Use Cases for Maintenance of Structural and Provisioning Definitions**
206
207 ==== 2.2.2 Publishing and Using Data and Reference Metadata ====
208
209 ===== 2.2.2.1 Use Cases =====
210
211 **Figure 9: Actors and use cases for data and metadata publishing and consuming**
212
213 ===== 2.2.2.2 Explanation of the Diagram =====
214
215 Note that in this diagram “publishing” data and reference metadata is deemed to be the same as “reporting” data and reference metadata. In some cases the act of making the data available fulfils both functions. Aggregated data is published and in order for the Data Publisher to do this and in order for consuming applications to process the data and reference metadata its structure must be known. Furthermore, consuming applications may also require access to reference metadata in order to present this to the Data Consumer so that the data is better understood. As with the data, the reference metadata also needs to be formatted in accordance with a maintained structure. The Data Consumer and Metadata Consumer cannot use the data or reference metadata unless it is “published” and so there is a “data source” or “metadata source” dependency between the “uses” and “publish” use cases.
216
217 In any data and reference metadata publishing and consuming scenario both the publishing and the consuming applications will need access to maintained Provisioning Definitions. These definitions may be as simple as who provides what data and reference metadata to whom, and when, or it can be more complex with constraints on the data and metadata that can be provided by a particular publisher, and, in a data sharing scenario where data and metadata are “pulled” from data sources, details of the source.
218
219 ===== 2.2.2.3 Definitions =====
220
221 |**Actor**|**Use Case**|**Description**
222 | | |(((
223 Responsible for publishing data according to a specified Data Structure Definition
224
225 (data structure) definition,
226 )))
227 |(((
228 Data Publisher
229
230
231 )))| |and relevant provisioning definitions.
232 | |(((
233
234
235 Publish Data
236
237
238 )))|Publish a data set. This could mean a physical data set or it could mean to make the data available for access at a data source such as a database that can process a query.
239 |(((
240
241
242 Data Consumer
243
244
245 )))| |The user of the data. It may be a human consumer accessing via a user interface, or it could be an application such as a statistical production system.
246 | |(((
247
248
249 Uses Data
250
251
252 )))|Use data that is formatted according to the structural definitions and made available according to the provisioning definitions. Data are often linked to metadata that may reside in a different location and be published and maintained independently.
253 |(((
254
255
256 Metadata Publisher
257
258
259 )))| |Responsible for publishing reference metadata according to a specified metadata structure definition, and relevant provisioning definitions.
260 | |(((
261
262
263 Publish Reference
264
265 Metadata
266
267
268 )))|Publish a reference metadata set. This could mean a physical metadata set or it could mean to make the reference metadata available for access at a metadata source such as a metadata repository that can process a query.
269 | | |The user of the reference metadata. It may be a human consumer accessing via a user interface, or it could be
270 |(((
271 Metadata Consumer
272
273
274 )))| |an application such as a statistical production or dissemination system.
275 | |(((
276
277
278 Uses Reference Metadata
279
280
281 )))|Use reference metadata that is formatted according to the structural definitions and made available according to the provisioning definitions.