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Chapter 9 • proCess speCifiCations and struCtured deCisions 235

COnsUlting OppORtUnity 9.1

Kit Chen Kaboodle, Inc.

“I don’t want to get anyone stirred up, but I think we need to Halloween treat bags, Christmas cookie cutters, or Valentine’s
sift through our unfilled order policies,” says Kit Chen. “I wouldn’t Day cake molds) and the back order date is 30 days or more,
want to put a strain on our customers. As you know already, Kit though, we send out a notice with a chef glaring at his egg timer.
Chen Kaboodle is a Web and mail-order cookware business spe- “If the back order date changed at all and we haven’t sent
cializing in ‘klassy kitsch for kitchens,’ as our latest catalog says. I out a card in the last two weeks, we send out a card with a chef
mean, we’ve got everything you need to do gourmet cooking and checking his recipe. If the merchandise is no longer available,
entertaining: nutmeg grinders, potato whisks, egg separators, tur- we send a notice (complete with chef crying in the corner) and
key basters, placemats with cats on ’em, ice cube trays in shamrock delete the record. We haven’t begun to use email in place of
shapes, and more. mailed cards, but I’d like to.
“Here’s how we’ve been handling unfilled orders. We search “Thanks for listening to all this. I think we’ve got the
our unfilled orders file from the Internet as well as mail-order sales right ingredients for a good policy; we just need to blend them
once a week. If the order was filled this week, we delete the record, together and cook up something special.”
and the rest is gravy. If we haven’t written to the customer in four Because you are the systems analyst whom Kit hired, go
weeks, we send ’em this cute card with a chef peeking into the through the narrative of how Kit Chen Kaboodle, Inc., handles
oven, saying, ‘Not ready yet.’ (It’s a notification that their item is unfilled orders, drawing boxes around each action Kit men-
still on back order.) tions and circling each condition brought up. Make a list of
“If the back order date changed to greater than 45 days from any ambiguities you would like to clarify in a later interview,
now, we send out a notice. If the merchandise is seasonal (as with and then write five questions to address them.

Overview of Process Specifications

To determine the human information requirements of a decision analysis strategy, a systems
analyst must first determine the users’ objectives, along with the organization’s objectives, using
either a top-down approach or an object-oriented approach. The systems analyst must understand
the principles of organizations and have a working knowledge of data-gathering techniques. The
top-down approach is critical because all human decisions in the organization should be related,
at least indirectly, to the broad objectives of the entire organization.
Process specifications—sometimes called minispecs, because they are a small portion of the
total project specifications—are created for primitive processes on a data flow diagram as well
as for some higher-level processes that explode to a child diagram. They also may be created for
class methods in object-oriented design, and, in a more general sense, for the steps in a use case
(as discussed in Chapters 2 and 10). These specifications explain the decision-making logic and
formulas that will transform process input data into output. Each derived element must have pro-
cess logic to show how it is produced from the base elements or other previously created derived
elements that are input to the primitive process.
The three goals of producing process specifications are as follows:
1. To reduce the ambiguity of the process. This goal compels the analyst to learn details about
how the process works. Any vague areas should be noted, written down, and consolidated
for all process specifications. These observations form a basis and provide the questions for
follow-up interviews with the user community.
2. To obtain a precise description of what is accomplished, which is usually included in a
packet of specifications for the programmer.
3. To validate the system design. This goal includes ensuring that a process has all the input
data flow necessary for producing the output. In addition, all input and output must be rep-
resented on the data flow diagram.

You will find many situations in which process specifications are not created. Sometimes
the process is very simple or the computer code already exists. This eventuality would be noted
in the process description, and no further design would be required. Categories of processes that
generally do not require specifications are as follows: