The inclusion of processes

It is often useful to also map the logical and physical data structures to their equivalents associated with the processing of data – the process model, the programs and the modules in the applications. An early example of the application of this is the Data Dictionary System (DDS) developed by ICL Ltd (now Fujitsu Services Limited). This was originally released in 1976. It was the first commercially available data dictionary system to support both analysis of the business area and the design and development of the information system to support that business area. The structure of the DDS is shown in Figure E.5.

FIGURE E.5 The ICL Data Dictionary System

The left-hand side of the DDS provides for the documentation of the processes and applications; the right-hand side covered the data model and the database structure. The top half was labelled as the ‘Real-World’ and covered the process and conceptual data models; the bottom half was labelled as the ‘Computer World’ and covered the applications and database structures.