UML diagram for smart home system

szabolcs varga 0
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I'm doing a use case diagram for a smart home system, which is centralized by a server.

Should I include the devices as an actor in the system, because the devices use services, and create triggers and actions? Or can an actor only be a person?

use-case-diagram use-case uml architecture
2 Answers

An actor is anything that acts (with the system under consideration), no matter being human or not. UML 2.5 p. 645:

An Actor specifies a role played by a user or any other system that interacts with the subject.

qwerty_so0

To the relevant definition reminded by qwerty_so, I'd like to add some more hints:

  • If the devices are autonomous systems that interact with the system under consideration for your use-cases, they can be actors.

  • If the devices are not autonomous and are controlled by your central server and are in reality a part of this system, they should not be actors, because actors are necessarily external to the system.

userPECf0
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