Flow charting -- A Systems and control technique;

              Flow Charting—A Systems and Control Technique
by HARLEY H. RUDOLPH, JR. Consultant, Management Advisory Services, Miami Office
Presented before the Fourth Annual Conference on Management Advisory Serv­ices,
Florida State University School of Business, Tallahassee—October 1965
FLOW CHARTING is a term we hear often these days. It is part of the jargon of the electronic data processing—EDP—field. Before the term EDP was originated it was specialized language used to describe process analysis in the field of industrial engineering. It has widespread application in all types of systems work and is a useful tool for docu­menting
the evaluation of internal control in the field of auditing.
In systems analysis and in specialized areas such as EDP the term flow charting is used to describe a variety of distinct techniques and charting methods. In fact, within the EDP field there is a lack of uni­formity
even in construing the concept implied by the term. You may, for example, hear the terms block diagram or systems chart used to denote to some groups the same concept as the term flow chart may de­note
to others. All would agree, however, that a flow chart is a graph­ical
representation of a procedure.
FLOW CHARTING
Some of the concepts covered by the generic term flow charting are examined in this article. Certain distinctions between two basic types of flow charts—technique flow charts and structural flow charts— are also drawn.
Technique Flow Charts
Technique flow charts illustrate the information requirements in a system and how they are to be met—that is, they show the method used in manipulating the data.
A typical portion of such a flow chart for a computer payroll pro­gram
may appear as follows:
C05
C06
C07
C08
C09
IsYear-to-
Calculate
Add FICA
Subtract
Calculate
Date Gross \ No
FICA
Tax to Year-
FICA Tax
Net Pay
$6,600
Tax
to-Date Tax
from Weekly
Gross
Yes
This portion of the system illustrates the method used to deduct Social
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