Teaching the structured design of interactive information systems

An approach to structured analysis and design that has been found useful in teaching students to apply these techniques to the development of interactive information systems (IIS) is presented. The problems that arise for the students may be solved by showing them how to develop a conversational view of an IIS. This view expresses the students´ spontaneous way of looking at the system. However, the conversational view cannot serve adequately as a basis for the development of a design. To become the basis for a design, the conversational view must be translated into the global view that displays the standard tripartite division into afferent, transform, and efferent flows