Use Case

A use case describes an actor carrying out a bounded task in a particular situation to obtain a useful result. In business discovery, a data or AI use-case candidate adds a hypothesis about improving that work. The phrase does not itself specify an implementation.

Describe the work behind the file

For a fictional purchasing clerk, the task is to find matching order and receipt evidence for an invoice. “Read PDFs” names an activity, while “build a chatbot” names a possible solution. Neither fully describes the intended result.

Identify the trigger, required information, exceptions, and person who uses the output.

Keep the authority in scope

Helping a clerk find evidence does not authorize a system to approve payment. That expansion changes the use case and its requirements. A useful candidate states what would improve and what remains uncertain, so the team can investigate before committing to a tool.

Reference: GOV.UK: User Research in Discovery.