how many basic flow in a use case, alternative flows in an alternative flow?

Question

In theory, how many basic flow can a use case contain? And can an alternative flow have (sub) alternative flows? What is the best practice?

Answer 1

A use case has one basic flow often called as happy path. The outcome of the basic flow should meet the actor's goal. A use case can have any number of sub flows/alternate flows as long as they are aligned to meeting a single goal of the actor. This tutorial has good recommendations. But at the end of the day the best use case is one that works for all its users: developers, testers, architects and other stakeholders.