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The goal of design is to map the requirements of the application to a hardware and software environment. The result of process-oriented analysis – data flow diagrams, data dictionary entities, and so on – is translated into detailed specifications for hardware and software. The main output of process-oriented design includes structure charts, physical databases, and program specifications.
In this chapter, you will learn about the concepts and terminologies for process-oriented design and the steps of process-oriented design, including transaction analysis, transform analysis, and structure charts, as well as physical database design, program packages, and program design. You will also learn about the strengths
and weaknesses of process-oriented design.
4. Process Design Activities
The steps in process design are transform (or transaction) analysis, develop a structure chart, design the physical database, package program units, and write program specifications. Each of these steps is discussed in this section.
Since both transform and transaction analysis might be appropriate in a given system, the first activity is to identify all transactions and determine if they have any common processing. This activity can be done independently from the DFD and functional analysis, or it can be done as a side activity while you are doing functional analysis as the primary activity. If you cannot tell which is more appropriate, do a rough-cut structure chart using both methods and use the one which gives the best overall results in terms of coherence, understandability, and simplicity of design.