Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and the Unified Process, Second Edition
by Craig Larman
6.12. Actors
An actor is anything with behavior, including the system under discussion (SuD) itself when it calls upon the services of other systems.[6] Primary and supporting actors will appear in the action steps of the use case text. Actors are not only roles played by people, but organizations, software, and machines. There are three kinds of external actors in relation to the SuD:
[6] This was a refinement and improvement to alternate definitions of actors, including those in early versions of the UML and UP [Cockburn97]. Older definitions inconsistently excluded the SuD as an actor, even when it called upon services of other systems. All entities may play multiple roles, including the SuD.
Primary actor— has user goals fulfilled through ...
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