Specialised processing and recording of information

Press, 7 May 1987, Page 34

Specialised processing and recording of information

Years ago a small business’s information was generally controlled by a senior clerk. What he did not record in a bound ledger he retained in his head. He was a highly responsive information resource but he was a specialist, a product of years of training and experience. As the requirements and volume of business information grew, the processing and recording of information became more specialised. Departments within the organisation began to keep separate sets of records for payroll, inventory, accounts receivable and so on, and people in the different departments began to stop talking to each other. The power of computer technology promised a return to an integrated information resource, a complete business information system for the user manager or staff member to plug into at will. But, serious problems began to emerge. The power, speed and capacity of new hardware technology was severely

hampered by a controlling element called software. Software is needed to control the computer hardware, develop and process applications (payroll, etc.), and enable them to relate to each other. A correct relationship is necessary to provide a total picture of an information system at any time. This is normally achieved through the use of database which needs to be properly managed. The writing of software programs for computer applications and the management of a software database (to keep all the information in step) is skilled work for computer' experts. Much of the conventional software development is tedious and skilled computer people would be far more effective if freed from timeconsuming routines when developing, changing or enhancing software applications. As it is, computer software work gets behind. Backlogs build. This is very costly to the organisation and very frustrating to the user.

This is where LINC is so important. LINC provides dramatic assistance for two groups of people. The computer expert who desires to be more productive and the person at the work face who is not a computer expert but who knows in detail the job to be done and the . results which must be produced by the computer system. The first appeal of LINC is that the user does not need to understand or think about things like software database or how the computer works. The second is that the user can communicate with the computer easily by using simple statements to describe the information system to be built. LINC provides a total information system with its own internally managed database. Obviously users of the system will look at it in different ways based on specialist interest or a qualified entitlement to information, but LINC generates for the business or organisation a total information resource. What is unique about LINC is that a non-com-puter trained user can develop a comprehensive information system in no more time than would be necessary to explain accurately the requirements of the job to a skilled computer analyst. If subsequently the developed system needs to be changed by the user LINC will do that quickly and easily. What makes LINC so important has now become clear; it puts the user back in control of a computerised information system. LINC is a systems generator. The LINC definition language acts on the premise that a system consists of components, events and profiles. The LINC definition language

is used to describe the systems requirements, the data requirements and reporting requirements of the business system. The LINC system generator accepts the information on components, events and profiles specified by the LINC definition language by a business analyst using a screen based terminal and dynamically creates the program required to meet the business analyst’s specifications. In the conventional systems design approach the following steps are used. Define the problems and the objectives. Analyse the problem. Review the current system and design problem solution. Perform the programming analysis. Prepare the programs. Debug the test programs and implement. Document and maintain programs. The relationship in conventional systems design has been to spend about 20 per cent of the time in the first three steps and 80 per cent of the time in the last four steps. The LINC system generator allows you to spend more time understanding the problem and its objectives. Having analysed the problem in terms of components, events and profiles, the solution has been defined and can be generated. The programming analysis,, coding, documenting and maintenance function plaguing users today can be greatly diminished by using LINC. These are the issues that make LINC a tool for use in developing prototypes and for solving the application backlog problem. The LINC Development Centre is the world base for continuing research and development of the revolutionary computer software systems generator known as LINC (Logic and Information Network Compiler).