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# Reading guidelines

This chapter contains separate sections per USEF phase: Plan, Validate, Operate, and Settle.
In each section the use cases are specified in a standard table format:

_Standard table format for USEF use cases._

|                        |                                                                                                                              |
|------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Goal in context**    | High-level description of the activity.                                                                                      |
| **Preconditions**      | The state of the system that must be present prior to a use case being performed.                                            |
| **Successful outcome** | The state the system will be in immediately after a use case has finished without failure.                                   |
| **Failure outcome**    | The state the system will be in immediately after a use case has finished after failure, plus identification of the failure. |