Event Sequence Phase

Sometimes we have several use case instances traced into one log file. Messages and Activity Regions (Volume 4, page 348) from many Use Case Trails (page 101) intermingle and make analysis difficult especially with the absence of UCID (Use Case ID), any other identification tags, or Message Links (Volume 7, page 284). However, initially most of the time we are interested in a sequence of Significant Events (Volume 5, page 281). After finding Anchor Messages (Volume 5, page 293) we can use Time Deltas (Volume 5, page 282) to differentiate between trace statements from different Use Case Trails. Here we assume correct Event Sequence Order (Volume 6, page 244). We call this pattern Event Sequence Phase by analogy with wave phases²⁴ (all such individual “waves” may have different “shapes” due to various delays between different stages of their use case and implementation narratives):

In the picture above, we also identified Dominant Event Sequence (Volume 7, page 313) for use case instance C.

²⁴ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_(waves)