The UML «include» Relationship and the Functional Refinement of Use Cases

Developing software with model-driven approaches involves dealing with diverse modeling artifacts such as use case diagrams, component diagrams, class diagrams, activity diagrams, sequence diagrams and others. In this paper we focus on use cases for software development and we analyze them from the perspective of detail. In that context we explore the UML (Unified Modeling Language) «include» relationship. This work allows understanding the use case modeling activity with support for refinement and provides for specific guidelines on how to conduct such activity.