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CHAPTER 9

Process Specifications and

Structured Decisions

Learning Objectives
Once you have mastered the material in this chapter you will be able to:
1. Understand the purpose of process specifications.

2. Recognize the difference between structured and semistructured decisions.
3. Use structured English, decision tables, and decision trees to analyze, describe, and docu-
ment structured decisions.
4. Choose an appropriate decision analysis method for analyzing structured decisions and
creating process specifications.

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A systems analyst approaching process specifications and structured
decisions has many options for documenting and analyzing them. In
Chapters 7 and 8 you noted processes such as VERIFY AND COMPUTE
FEES, but you did not explain the logic necessary to execute these tasks.
The methods available for documenting and analyzing the logic of deci-
sions include structured English, decision tables, and decision trees. It
is important to be able to recognize logic and structured decisions that
occur in a business and how they are distinguishable from semistructured decisions that tend
to involve human judgment. Then it is critical to recognize that structured decisions lend
themselves particularly well to analysis with systematic methods that promote completeness,
accuracy, and communication.

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