QUALITY ASSURANCE POTENTIAL OF ANALYST DESIGNER WORKBENCHES

Analyst/designer workbenches are most often viewed and marketed as productivity aids. The paper explores their potentially significant role in assuring the quality of a system being developed from an early stage. Using dataflow diagrams as an example, the type of consistency checking possible in an analyst/designer workbench is examined and rules suggested. Some rules require increased richness (i.e., extra information) of diagram, which is at variance with the principle of simplicity for user comprehension. One solution would be to allow the analyst to control the level of display detail. © 1989.