The Tools Of Structured Analysis

Let's take a look at the tools of structured analysis using a common illustration the textbook publisher. Here is a summary background:

1. ABC, Inc., is a multimillion-dollar publisher of business and technical textbooks, located in Homewood, Illinois. The company is organized into divisions such as trades, textbooks, accounting, and sales. The organization structure consists of a president, two senior vice presidents, a general manager of each division, shipping and receiving supervisors, and 45 sales representatives.

2. The college book division receives orders from bookstores for books at a discount which depends on the size of the order. The clerk in charge verifies the order and authorizes shipment through the warehouse. An invoice follows the shipment. Accounts receivable are processed through the accounting department from forms filled out by an accounting clerk.

3. Business is highly seasonal; it peaks about a month before the. beginning of each school term. There is an average of 80 invoices per' week, each with an average of 8 book titles and an average value of $5,000.

4. Recently, management decided to improve the availability of textbooks¬ by holding stocks of new computer and other high-demand texts and making it possible  for ' all bookstores to O/'del' by calling a toll-free number as well   as by the present mail method. This means that an improved inventory control system must be devised along with a catalog of texts to verity authors and titles and determine the availability of the books being ordered.

S. The new system of receiving orders is expected to increase the sales volume by 80 percent within the year. Although fewer average texts per order are expected due to the use 'of the toll-free number, books are now shipped more quickly than before and delivered in time for .the start of the semester.

An analyst has been asked to investigate the new system and build a logical model of the candidate system without abruptly jumping to con what will conclusions automated and what will remain manual.