Structured Analysis and Design Technique

Structured analysis and design technique (SADT) is a systems engineering and software engineering methodology for describing systems as a hierarchy of functions. SADT is a structured analysis modelling language, which uses two types of diagrams: activity models and data models. It was developed in the late 1960s by Douglas T. Ross, and was formalized and published as IDEF0 in 1981.

Structured analysis and design technique (SADT) is a diagrammatic notation designed specifically to help people describe and understand systems. It offers building blocks to represent entities and activities, and a variety of arrows to relate boxes. These boxes and arrows have an associated informal semantics. SADT can be used as a functional analysis tool of a given process, using successive levels of details. The SADT method not only allows one to define user needs for IT developments, which is often used in the industrial Information Systems, but also to explain and present an activity’s manufacturing processes and procedures.

SADT has been developed and field-tested during the period of 1969 to 1973 by Douglas T. Ross and SofTech, Inc.. The methodology was used in the MIT Automatic Programming Tool (APT) project. It received extensive use starting in 1973 by the US Air Force Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing program.

According to Levitt (2000) SADT is "part of a series of structured methods, that represent a collection of analysis, design, and programming techniques that were developed in response to the problems facing the software world from the 1960s to the 1980s. In this timeframe most commercial programming was done in COBOL and Fortran, then C and BASIC. There was little guidance on “good” design and programming techniques, and there were no standard techniques for documenting requirements and designs. Systems were getting larger and more complex, and the information system development became harder and harder to do so. As a way to help manage large and complex software.

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