The standardization faces new challenges, due to the development of complex and cross-domain systems, e.g. AAL systems and Smart Grids. The known vertical approach to describe system’s functionalities within one domain cannot be applied, in this case. On the one hand, the number of involved actors is too high, and on the other hand, ambiguous ideas of these systems make it difficult to specify general requirements.

Thus, the vertical approach should be replaced through a horizontal approach, in which scenarios between actors are described. Scenarios allow a complete consideration and analysis of new systems in the area of standardization. Prior experiences in E-Energy projects and discussions of the international IEC standardization mandate M/490 show that the known use case methodology from the IT sector can be used for the use case description in the standardization. This was checked for the domains Smart Grid and Industrie 4.0 in further projects (e.g. DISCERN).

The transferability for the use case methodology is expanded in this project by including the domain AAL into previous work of the M/490. Furthermore, an IT-Tool is developed to support the use case description and administration for the large number of use cases in the domains AAL and Smart Grid and to allow use case analyses. So far, use cases are described in text files and are exchanged between involved persons and organizations. This process is supported by the IT-Tool, the Use Case Management Repository (UCMR). The UCMR allows the collaborative description and administration of use cases. Additionally, the concept of Integration profiles which is a known methodology in the AAL sector is included into the UCMR.

Supported by:

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy for the project ”UC4AAL“.

Funding code: 01 FS 13028

The project includes the template creation for use case descriptions, which can be used across domains, and the creation of an IT-Tool to support the collaborative work during use case descriptions.

The aim of the project UC4AAL is the creation of a cross-domain template for use case descriptions and an IT-Tool to support the use case description and administration processes. During the project, the domains ambient assisted living (AAL) and Smart Grid are considered to detect convergences between different domains. This is important to create a common template for use case descriptions. The IT-Tool allows the analysis of use cases besides the use case description and administration.