IBM 1130 User Manual page 28

Section
Subsections
Page
10 20
I
00 01
DOCUMENTATION OF PUNCHED CARD SYSTEMS
Follow these steps in documenting your present
punched card applications:
1. Make a list of all your control panels.
2. Arrange the list by job step within applica-
tion. For instance, a payroll application, like the
one in 10.50.00, might consist of panels to perform
the balancing of current earnings cards to time
cards, matching current deductions cards to earn-
ings cards, preparing the deduction register, and
all the remaining job steps.
3. Obtain copies of all the reports that have
been run using these panels.
4. Collect your current spacing charts and card
layouts and make a checklist of them. Use your
list of control panels to make sure that you have
gathered spacing charts and card layouts for all
the operations. If not, put them on your checklist,
and either find them or get them made up.
5. Check your spacing charts against the cur-
rently run copies of your reports, and bring your
spacing charts up to date. Mark them on your
checklist as they are updated.
6. Check your card layouts against your proce-
dures as you run them. This will allow you to up-
date both the card layouts and the written procedures
to conform with your current actual practice. Mark
the card layouts on your checklist as they are up-
dated.
7. Obtain a current schedule of jobs. Use your
list of control panels to verify the schedule.
Having finished these steps, you should have
current and accurate copies of spacing charts and
card layouts. If you do not, your 1130 application
design and program development will suffer, and
you will be forced to retrace your steps to get up-
dated facts. The surveys (in 10.40.00) will either
verify the accuracy of your documentation or in-
dicate discrepancies that need to be checked further.
Next, since you have all the information at hand,
you can develop the following items:
1. Updated flowcharts of your applications
2. Job descriptions
3. Calculation descriptions and formulas
These items, if prepared thoroughly (and this is
a very important "if"), can serve as the basis for
your entire 1130 application design effort.
Summary. The important thing in documenting
any procedure is that all the information be made
available to the programmer in concise, easily
understood form.
You will find that these documenting methods
will be very useful in analyzing all the procedures
in your business. By pinpointing bottlenecks, areas
of duplication, etc., they can provide a means of
improving those procedures that you do not plan to
convert immediately to the new system.
Once a program has been completed for an appli-
cation, the documentation will become a permanent
record of the procedure.
It
can be used, for
example, as:
1. A source of information for implementing
future changes.
2. An education device for familiarizing new
operators and management personnel with the pro-
cedures.
3. A source of information for your auditors,
who must be familiar with your procedures.
Start documenting your present applications now.
Once the application is documented, programmed,
and operating on your new system, keep the docu-
mentation up to date. It will contribute toward an
efficient and productive data processing installation.