Process specification: Difference between revisions

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'''Process Specification''' is a business term for the specification of a process. It is not unique to business activity, but can be applied to any organizational activity.

A '''Process Specification''' is a description of the [[procedure]] to be followed by an actor within an elementary level business activity, as represented on a process model such as a [[dataflow diagram]] or [[IDEF0]] model. A common alias is minispec short for miniature specification. Process Specifications are commonly included as an integral component of a requirements document in systems development. The process specification defines what must be done in order to transform inputs into outputs. It is a detailed set of instructions outlining a business procedure that each elementary level business activity is expected to carry out.

Within some structured methods, the capitalized term '''Process Specification''' refers to a description of the procedure to be followed by an actor within an elementary level business activity, as represented on a process model such as a [[dataflow diagram]] or [[IDEF0]] model. A common alias is ''minispec'', short for ''miniature specification''.

There are a variety of approaches that can be used to produce a process specification: decision tables, structured English (favored technique of most systems analysts), pre/post conditions, flowcharts, Nassi-Shneiderman diagrams, use case flow descriptions, and others. No matter what approach is used, it must communicate to system development designers, implementers and support professionals, as well as be verifiable by the stakeholders/end users.

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==Use in systems development==

The process specification defines what must be done to transform inputs into outputs. It is a detailed set of instructions outlining a business procedure that each elementary level business activity is expected to carry out. Process specifications are commonly included as integral components of requirements documents in systems development.

==Techniques==

A variety of approaches can be used to produce a process specification, including:

*[[Decision tables]]

*Structured English (favored technique of most systems analysts)

*Pre/post conditions

*[[Use cases]], basic course or events/alternate paths in [[use cases]]

*[[Flowcharts]]

*[[Nassi–Shneiderman diagram|Nassi–Shneiderman diagrams]]

*[[Unified Modeling Language|UML]] [[Activity diagram|Activity diagrams]]

No matter what approach is used, a specification must communicate to system development designers, implementers and support professionals, and be verifiable by stakeholders and end users.

== See also ==

* [[Specification (technical standard)]]

== External links ==

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20151205091250/http://www.yourdon.com/strucanalysis/wiki/index.php/Chapter_11 Chapter 11] of the [https://web.archive.org/web/20151208030959/http://www.yourdon.com/strucanalysis/wiki/index.php?title=Introduction Structured Analysis Wiki], by [[Ed Yourdon]]

[[Category:Business process management]]

[[Category:Software development process]]