Structured Design

Structured Design is made up of:

• System organization. Systems are organized into "Black Boxes", routines that have well-defined, narrow interfaces and whose implementation details are hidden from other routines.
• Strategies for developing design.
• Criteria for evaluating design.
• A clear statement for the problem to guide the solution to the problem.
• Graphical and verbal tools for expressing designs, including structure charts and PDL.

There are TWO approaches for Structured Design:

• Top-down Approach
• Bottom-up Approach

Top-Down Approach:

• Design the top level first
• Choose the implement language, which one is suitable to your project.
• Postpone working out the details to the lower levels of design.
• Formalize and verify each level.
• Move to next lower level to make the next set of refinement.

Bottom-up Approach:

• Make sure what is the system needs to do.
• Identify low-level capabilities from that question.
• Identify with the next level up, or go to the top level and try to do Top-Down.

Examples of Bad and Good Programs

• Here are examples of bad and good routines.

Copyright 2000 Department of Computer Science, University of Regina.

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