A Tool for Transformation of Analysis to Design in Structured Software Development

The primary purpose of this study is to develop an automation tool capable of converting the specification of structured analysis into that of structured design. Structured Analysis and Structured Design Language (SASDL) is a computer-aided description language based on ERA model and particulariged by ISLDM/SEM. The automation tool utilizes the specifications of data flow diagram described in SASDL to produce their corresponding SASDL specification of structure chart. The main idea behind the automatic conversion process is to categorize the bubbles in data flow diagram and to determine the positions of the bubbles in structure chart according to their categories and the relative locations in data flow diagram. To make the problem into manageable size, the whole system is broken down into separate parts called activity units. A great deal of manual jobs, such as checking processes leveling, checking data derivation of processes, deriving structure chart from data flow diagram, checking any inconsistency between data flow diagram and structure chart and so forth, can be automated by using SASDL and conversion tool. The specification of structure chart derived by conversion tool may be used in an initial step of design to be refined by SASDL users.