SOFTWARE ANALYSIS & DESIGN TOOLS

Software analysis and design includes all activities, which help the transformation of requirement specification
into implementation. Requirement specifications specify all functional and non-functional expectations from
the software. These requirement specifications come in the shape of human readable and understandable
documents, to which a computer has nothing to do.

Software analysis and design is the intermediate stage, which helps human-readable requirements to be
transformed into actual code.

Let us see few analysis and design tools used by software designers:

Data Flow Diagram

Data flow diagram is graphical representation of flow of data in an information system. It is capable of
depicting incoming data flow, outgoing data flow and stored data. The DFD does not mention anything about
how data flows through the system.

There is a prominent difference between DFD and Flowchart. The flowchart depicts flow of control in program
modules. DFDs depict flow of data in the system at various levels. DFD does not contain any control or branch
elements.

Types of DFD

Data Flow Diagrams are either Logical or Physical.

 Logical DFD - This type of DFD concentrates on the system process, and flow of data in the
system.For example in a Banking software system, how data is moved between different entities.
 Physical DFD - This type of DFD shows how the data flow is actually implemented in the system. It
is more specific and close to the implementation.

DFD Components

DFD can represent Source, destination, storage and flow of data using the following set of components -

 Entities - Entities are source and destination of information data. Entities are represented by a
rectangles with their respective names.
 Process - Activities and action taken on the data are represented by Circle or Round-edged rectangles.
 Data Storage - There are two variants of data storage - it can either be represented as a rectangle with
absence of both smaller sides or as an open-sided rectangle with only one side missing.
 Data Flow - Movement of data is shown by pointed arrows. Data movement is shown from the base
of arrow as its source towards head of the arrow as destination.

Levels of DFD

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  Level 0 - Highest abstraction level DFD is known as Level 0 DFD, which depicts the entire information
system as one diagram concealing all the underlying details. Level 0 DFDs are also known as context
level DFDs.

 Level 1 - The Level 0 DFD is broken down into more specific, Level 1 DFD. Level 1 DFD depicts
basic modules in the system and flow of data among various modules. Level 1 DFD also mentions
basic processes and sources of information.

 Level 2 - At this level, DFD shows how data flows inside the modules mentioned in Level 1.
Higher level DFDs can be transformed into more specific lower level DFDs with deeper level of
understanding unless the desired level of specification is achieved.

Structure Charts

Structure chart is a chart derived from Data Flow Diagram. It represents the system in more detail than DFD.
It breaks down the entire system into lowest functional modules, describes functions and sub-functions of each
module of the system to a greater detail than DFD.

Structure chart represents hierarchical structure of modules. At each layer a specific task is performed.

Here are the symbols used in construction of structure charts -

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 Module - It represents process or subroutine or task. A control module branches to more than one sub-
module. Library Modules are re-usable and invokable from any module.

 Condition - It is represented by small diamond at the base of module. It depicts that control module

can select any of sub-routine based on some condition.

 Jump - An arrow is shown pointing inside the module to depict that the control will jump in the middle

of the sub-module.
 Loop - A curved arrow represents loop in the module. All sub-modules covered by loop repeat

execution of module.

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  Data flow - A directed arrow with empty circle at the end represents data flow.

 Control flow - A directed arrow with filled circle at the end represents control flow.

HIPO Diagram

HIPO (Hierarchical Input Process Output) diagram is a combination of two organized method to analyze the
system and provide the means of documentation. HIPO model was developed by IBM in year 1970.

HIPO diagram represents the hierarchy of modules in the software system. Analyst uses HIPO diagram in
order to obtain high-level view of system functions. It decomposes functions into sub-functions in a
hierarchical manner. It depicts the functions performed by system.

HIPO diagrams are good for documentation purpose. Their graphical representation makes it easier for
designers and managers to get the pictorial idea of the system structure.

In contrast to IPO (Input Process Output) diagram, which depicts the flow of control and data in a module,
HIPO does not provide any information about data flow or control flow.
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Example

Both parts of HIPO diagram, Hierarchical presentation and IPO Chart are used for structure design of software
program as well as documentation of the same.

Structured English

Most programmers are unaware of the large picture of software so they only rely on what their managers tell
them to do. It is the responsibility of higher software management to provide accurate information to the
programmers to develop accurate yet fast code.

Other forms of methods, which use graphs or diagrams, may are sometimes interpreted differently by different
people.

Hence, analysts and designers of the software come up with tools such as Structured English. It is nothing but
the description of what is required to code and how to code it. Structured English helps the programmer to
write error-free code.

Other form of methods, which use graphs or diagrams, may are sometimes interpreted differently by different
people. Here, both Structured English and Pseudo-Code tries to mitigate that understanding gap.

Structured English is the It uses plain English words in structured programming paradigm. It is not the ultimate
code but a kind of description what is required to code and how to code it. The following are some tokens of
structured programming.

IF-THEN-ELSE,
DO-WHILE-UNTIL

Analyst uses the same variable and data name, which are stored in Data Dictionary, making it much simpler
to write and understand the code.

Example

We take the same example of Customer Authentication in the online shopping environment. This procedure
to authenticate customer can be written in Structured English as:

Enter Customer_Name
SEEK Customer_Name in Customer_Name_DB file
IF Customer_Name found THEN
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 Call procedure USER_PASSWORD_AUTHENTICATE()
ELSE
PRINT error message
Call procedure NEW_CUSTOMER_REQUEST()
ENDIF

The code written in Structured English is more like day-to-day spoken English. It can not be implemented
directly as a code of software. Structured English is independent of programming language.

Pseudo-Code

Pseudo code is written more close to programming language. It may be considered as augmented programming
language, full of comments and descriptions.

Pseudo code avoids variable declaration but they are written using some actual programming language’s
constructs, like C, Fortran, Pascal etc.

Pseudo code contains more programming details than Structured English. It provides a method to perform the
task, as if a computer is executing the code.

Example

Program to print Fibonacci up to n numbers.

void function Fibonacci

Get value of n;
Set value of a to 1;
Set value of b to 1;
Initialize I to 0
for (i=0; i< n; i++)
{
if a greater than b
{
Increase b by a;
Print b;
}
else if b greater than a
{
increase a by b;
print a;
}
}

Decision Tables

A Decision table represents conditions and the respective actions to be taken to address them, in a structured
tabular format.

It is a powerful tool to debug and prevent errors. It helps group similar information into a single table and then
by combining tables it delivers easy and convenient decision-making.

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Creating Decision Table

To create the decision table, the developer must follow basic four steps:

 Identify all possible conditions to be addressed

 Determine actions for all identified conditions
 Create Maximum possible rules
 Define action for each rule

Decision Tables should be verified by end-users and can lately be simplified by eliminating duplicate rules
and actions.

Example

Let us take a simple example of day-to-day problem with our Internet connectivity. We begin by identifying
all problems that can arise while starting the internet and their respective possible solutions.

We list all possible problems under column conditions and the prospective actions under column Actions.

Conditions/Actions Rules
Shows Connected N N N N Y Y Y Y
Conditions Ping is Working N N Y Y N N Y Y
Opens Website Y N Y N Y N Y N
Check network cable X
Check internet router X X X X
Actions Restart Web Browser X
Contact Service provider X X X X X X
Do no action
Table : Decision Table – In-house Internet Troubleshooting

Entity-Relationship Model

Entity-Relationship model is a type of database model based on the notion of real world entities and
relationship among them. We can map real world scenario onto ER database model. ER Model creates a set
of entities with their attributes, a set of constraints and relation among them.

ER Model is best used for the conceptual design of database. ER Model can be represented as follows :

 Entity - An entity in ER Model is a real world being, which has some properties called attributes.
Every attribute is defined by its corresponding set of values, called domain.
For example, Consider a school database. Here, a student is an entity. Student has various attributes
like name, id, age and class etc.
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  Relationship - The logical association among entities is called relationship. Relationships are mapped
with entities in various ways. Mapping cardinalities define the number of associations between two
entities.
Mapping cardinalities:
o one to one
o one to many
o many to one
o many to many

Data Dictionary

Data dictionary is the centralized collection of information about data. It stores meaning and origin of data, its
relationship with other data, data format for usage etc. Data dictionary has rigorous definitions of all names in
order to facilitate user and software designers.

Data dictionary is often referenced as meta-data (data about data) repository. It is created along with DFD
(Data Flow Diagram) model of software program and is expected to be updated whenever DFD is changed or
updated.

Requirement of Data Dictionary

The data is referenced via data dictionary while designing and implementing software. Data dictionary
removes any chances of ambiguity. It helps keeping work of programmers and designers synchronized while
using same object reference everywhere in the program.

Data dictionary provides a way of documentation for the complete database system in one place. Validation
of DFD is carried out using data dictionary.

Contents

Data dictionary should contain information about the following

 Data Flow
 Data Structure
 Data Elements
 Data Stores
 Data Processing

Data Flow is described by means of DFDs as studied earlier and represented in algebraic form as described.

= Composed of
{} Repetition
() Optional
+ And
[/] Or

Example

Address = House No + (Street / Area) + City + State

Course ID = Course Number + Course Name + Course Level + Course Grades

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Data Elements

Data elements consist of Name and descriptions of Data and Control Items, Internal or External data stores
etc. with the following details:

 Primary Name
 Secondary Name (Alias)
 Use-case (How and where to use)
 Content Description (Notation etc. )
 Supplementary Information (preset values, constraints etc.)

Data Store

It stores the information from where the data enters into the system and exists out of the system. The Data
Store may include -

 Files
o Internal to software.
o External to software but on the same machine.
o External to software and system, located on different machine.
 Tables
o Naming convention
o Indexing property

Data Processing

There are two types of Data Processing:

 Logical: As user sees it

 Physical: As software sees it