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Analysis and Design
Structured English
Structured English is one more tool available to the analyst. It comes as an
aid against the problems of ambiguous language in stating condition and actions
in decisions and procedures. Here no trees or tables are employed, rather with
narrative statements a procedure is described. Thus it does not show but states
the decision rules. The analyst is first required to identify the conditions that
occur in the process, subsequent decisions, which are to be made and the alternative
actions to be taken.
Here the steps are clearly listed in the order in which they should be taken.
There are no special symbols or formats involved unlike in the case of decision
trees and tables, also the entire procedure can be stated quickly as only English
like statements are used.
Structured English borrows heavily from structured programming as it uses logical
construction and imperative statements designed to carry out instructions for
actions. Using "IF", "THEN", "ELSE" and "So"
statement decisions are made. In this structured description terms from the data
dictionary are widely used which makes the description compact and straight.
Developing Structured Statements
Three basic types of statements are employed to describe the process.
1. Sequence Structures - A sequence structure is a single
step or action included in a process. It is independent of the existence of any
condition and when encountered it is always taken. Usually numerous such instructions
are used together to describe a process.
2. Decision Structures - Here action sequences described are
often included within decision structures that identify conditions. Therefore
these structures occur when two or more actions can be taken as per the value
of a specific condition. Once the condition is determined the actions are unconditional.
An example of Structured English
3. Iteration Structures- these are those structures, which
are repeated, in routing operations such as DO WHILE statements.
The decision structure of example discussed in previous sections may be given
in structured English as in the figure shown above.
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