Divide and conquer refactoring: dealing with the large, scattering or tangling use case model

Problems in use case models such as use cases that are abandoned and no longer relevant, descriptions that are unnecessarily long and complex, information that is duplicated and use case models that are very large and complex may compromise understandability of the requirements and as a result reusability and maintainability are reduced. In this paper, it is proposed a refactoring to assist the requirements engineer to improve use case models. Refactoring opportunities are presented to indicate where and when the refactoring could be used. We also describe how our approach was applied in a real example from an existing organization.