Analyzing Interactions › Analyzing Process Logic

Analyzing Process Logic

To help make the transition from the high level of detail at which activity analysis stops to the low level of detail required in the Process Action Diagram, you need to detail the logic of an elementary process.

Beginning with a very general definition, you add detail at each step.

In the final step, you combine all these details to form a Process Action Diagram, which describes aspects of process behavior based on a relevant subset of the Entity Relationship Diagram.

Building a complete action diagram is often deferred until design, especially when the analysis model is not completely stable, or when business logic is not fully agreed upon and subject to change during design prototyping.

Meanwhile, a description of the business logic may be recorded as part of the process definition, with additions being made as process logic is analyzed and actions and business rules are formulated.

The formulation of detailed process logic benefits from such a formal step-by-step approach because of its extremely detailed nature and the precise language used to record it (either deferred until design, or during analysis) in the Process Action Diagram.