Chapter 6: Analysis and Design of Applications

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The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the use of process diagrams and storyboards. Together with entity-relationship diagrams, described in the previous chapter, they constitute modeling tools for the planning and the documentation of applications.

Background

A criticism often made of technical people is that they rush to implement an application before truly understanding what the requirements are. Furthermore, they are accused of wanting to use technologies independent of whether or not these technologies serve the function of the application. Whether or not these accusations are true, it makes sense to understand what an application is supposed to do in a way that does not involve the implementation. The process of analyzing the problem is called systems analysis. Systems design is when the decisions are made regarding technologies and products, and when the systems analysts prepare directions for the system builders. The analysis and design stages are characterized by the building of models. Different methodologies exist for the model making. See the Reflection section for a brief description of object modeling. Along with the various methodologies, many software products exist for systems analysis and design. This chapter provides an introduction to a very large topic.