Page 176 - Big Data Analytics for Connected Vehicles and Smart Cities

156 Big Data Analytics for Connected Vehicles and Smart Cities Transportation Use Cases 157

analytics will be defined and described. A high-level set of intended results or
benefits is also identified.

8.4 What Is a Use Case?

The term use case means different things to different people, depending on
what they are trying to achieve using the use case.
According to Wikipedia [1], a use case is defined as:

…a list of actions or event steps, typically defining the interactions between
a role (known in the Unified Modeling Language as an actor) and a system,
to achieve a goal. The actor can be a human or other external system.
In systems engineering, use cases are used at a higher level than within
software engineering, often representing missions or stakeholder goals.
The detailed requirements may then be captured in the Systems Modeling
Language (Sims) or as contractual statements.

This is a software and system engineering definition. In the world of soft-
ware and system engineering the use case has a prescribed format and is com-
prised of rigorous definitions of data flows, actions, events, and interactions
between people and systems. In this case, they form the basis for system and
software design requiring such rigor and detail.
The purpose of the use case within the context of this book is as a sig-
nificant component in the bridge between smart city needs and data science
capabilities. An understanding of the term can be derived by decomposing it
into two elements: use and case. Use indicates that it describes the application
or use of the proposed analytics. It also indicates that the end result should be
useful. Case indicates that it is an example or an illustration of how the analytic
can be applied. Putting the two together yields an explanation of the use case
as an illustration of how the analytics will be applied and how they will deliver
results. This, in the simplest of terms, is the function of the use case as defined
for the purposes of this book. For the purposes of applying big data and analyt-
ics to smart cities, a simplified, less rigorous use case definition is appropriate.
The objective is not to support software or system engineering design, but to
act as a bridge and as a communication tool between smart city transportation
experts and data science experts.
The identification and definition of suitable analytics for smart cities re-
quires an understanding of the transportation needs and services to be sup-
ported combined with an understanding of the capabilities of data science and
analytics. Smart city transportation use cases are designed to capture things that
can be done, the objectives of the analysis, and the data needs. They are used
to explain to the end user that needs and objectives have been understood and