Talk:Use Case Template

Some guidelines for the curation of provenance use cases:

• In the use case, it should be clear that provenance is a solution to a problem, not an end in itself. Therefore, try and describe use cases without mention of provenance, as far as possible, then bring up provenance as part of the solution.

• A useful use case is one that captures a whole set of similar scenarios. Thus, ideally the case should be described in general terms, while providing an example specific scenario to fix the ideas. In particular, you should ask whether technology or domain-specific elements that appear in the scenario, such as Linked Data, e-science, etc., are really essential to the scenario, or rather represent just one possible instance of it. If it is not essential, then it should be clearly demarcated as a specific example. It may also be that a specific technology facilitates the use of provenance: this is the case of Linked Data, for example, in the Timeliness use case. If this is the case, the technology is best discussed in the "Problems and Limitations" section

• Include enough details to highlight the technical challenges brought up by the use case

• Separate better the use aspects of the use case, so that we can highlight what are provenance content and management issues that will be used by the consumer and separate out how the consumer uses the provenance information.

• bibliographic references: please link to paper entries in the [Mendeley collection], add the paper if not there

• none of the few curated use cases to date uses all of the sections in the template. Some discretion is needed when using a new section, if in doubt please consult with the curators to ensure uniform interpretation of the section's purposes

• the original intent of the use case may be domain- or technology-specific. That notwithstanding, it should preserved as a form of "provenance of the use case itself". As such it should find its place in the Background and Current Practice section, where it is clearly demarcated as motivation for the use case.

• the goal section should describe a user goal, as opposed to a "goal in the use of provenance". Once again, absence of any mention of provenance in this section is a good sign.

• the goal section should contain a short and crisp headline for the entire use case, which should then be expanded upon in the Use case scenario