Bruce Crozier
Business Software Analyst
Operations
Analysis
Operations
analysis is too little used in software evaluation and design, to some extent
because non-analysts look upon the flowcharts used as complex, difficult to
follow diagrams that seem like they may take more time to produce than
justified. For proper software analysis an operations diagram is an invaluable
tool in getting an accurate picture of a business process. But the traditional
operations diagram is difficult to follow, and unfortunately that means that it
rarely gets used by others that could benefit from the wealth of information it
contains. And it’s time consuming to produce (try doing it sometime and you
quickly see why so many of them look like the wanderings of a drunken rodent),
which means that it’s an easy step for the budget-minded to want to skip.
I
realized a few years ago that modern hypertext capabilities could be used to
greatly simplify the operations charting task and make the results much easier
to follow while containing even more information. Specifically, I reduced the
number of symbols to a handful and reduced the number of paths on a single page
to just three columns, each with its own text description column. If a process
branches beyond the three columns, a hyperlink takes the viewer to another page
where that branch continues. This technique would tend to produce a lot of
pages if a complex process were printed as hardcopy, but viewed interactively
on the computer it’s much easier to follow. Hyperlinks can also be embedded
that jump the viewer to more detailed documentation, job descriptions, form
layouts, an employee database, etc. Ideally, with modern electronic document
management tools, all information related to software should be linked,
interactive and easy to follow. The operations document is the first step in
building that information network.
