A KNOWLEDGE-BASED APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF BUSINESS TRANSACTION PROCESSING SYSTEMS

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new approach to the analysis and design of management information systems. While previous methods were either syntactic in nature (structured analysis and design, problem statement languages) or focused on the user-analyst interaction (user-controlled design, prototyping), our method - while compatible with both - additionally incorporates the experiential knowledge gained from the thousands of systems in operation today. This goal is achieved through providing the systems analyst with a business systems architecture (BSA) consisting of two parts: a set of rules representing the knowledge about a generalized application domain, and a domain-specific database architecture that enforces these rules. The rules can also be used to check the design of existing systems and to guide the analysis process for new systems. The paper describes a BSA for transaction processing systems. The approach can be applied in a similar way to other application domains such as decision support systems.