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The Development Project: Analysis and Design

Process descriptions and algorithms

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 2

Overview

Process description, decision table and trace table.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Process

What is a process description?

Key term

What makes an algorithm ready to hand to a developer to code?

Key term

What is pseudocode?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is a process description?

    Model answer

    A process description states in detail what one process in the design does: what data it receives, what rules and calculations it applies, what decisions it makes, and what it produces.

  2. 2

    Why is a process description written before the code?

    Model answer

    Writing it settles the logic while it is still cheap to change and can be checked by the client, and it lets the developer concentrate on the language when coding rather than on deciding what the program should do.

  3. 3

    What makes an algorithm ready to hand to a developer to code?

    Model answer

    An algorithm is ready to hand over when every step is unambiguous, every decision states its condition and what happens on both outcomes, every repetition states when it ends, and the inputs and outputs are named. The coder should then be making no decisions about what the program is supposed to do.

  4. 4

    What is pseudocode?

    Model answer

    Pseudocode is a way of writing an algorithm using the structures of programming — sequence, selection and iteration — in ordinary words rather than in the syntax of any language, so the logic can be read and checked by anyone.

  5. 5

    Why is pseudocode preferred to a real language for design?

    Model answer

    Pseudocode is not tied to a language or a package, can be read by a client or a colleague who does not program, and keeps attention on the logic rather than on syntax that would have to be rewritten if the package changed.

  6. 6

    Write in pseudocode the algorithm for calculating a membership fee that is thirty pounds, reduced to eighteen for a member under sixteen.

    Model answer

    INPUT age. IF age < 16 THEN SET fee TO 18 ELSE SET fee TO 30 ENDIF. OUTPUT fee.

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