Actors

Actor is a term used primarily in use case modeling. A use case models the interaction between multiple parties - or actors. An actor can refer to a person, a system, a part of a system, an organization - anything you'd like to model the behavior of using a . For our use we'll talk about human types of actors.

Typical examples might be

• Cashier
• Customer
• Manager
• Accounts Payable Clerk

An actor typically references a common name for a type of user. Often they take the form of a job title. In most cases the name is common with respect to the organization paying for the software to be built. For instance actor names like "customer" and "manager" are relationships individuals might have with an organization. When you use an actor name within that organization, the people you're talking with typically know who you're referring to and will infer characteristics of that type of person from that actor name.

Pair named actors with goals

To make an actor or list of actors more useful, we might pair the actor name with a goal or list of goals with respect to a process or piece of software we're considering.

For example, let's say we were building a point of sale system. Given an actor like cashier we might list a few goals like:

• ring up sales for customers quickly
• do customer returns
• look up prices for customers
• keep the cash drawer balanced

When creating an actor or list of actors, pair them with the goals that motivate their use of the system you're designing.