2.1.3: thinking procedurally

• What is the first stage of thinking procedurally?

  Taking the problem defined by the user and breaking it down into its constituent parts
• What is the purpose of problem decomposition?


  To make complex problems easier to solve and more manageable by allowing tasks to be divided between a group of people according to individual skill sets.
• State another name given to top-down design.

  Stepwise refinement
• What is the purpose of top-down design?

  Continually break problems down into subproblems until each subproblem can be represented as a single task and ideally a self-contained subroutine
• What are the benefits of using top-down design?

  • Problems can be solved and modules developed by different people.
  • Tasks can be tested separately. Modules are self-contained
• What sort of problems is top-down design suited to?

  Large, complex problems
• What is the second stage of thinking procedurally in software development?

  Identifying components of a solution
• How can the lowest level subproblems in top-down design in code?

  As self-contained modules or subroutines
• What do software developers need to consider when recombining components of a solution?

  The order in which subroutines are executed, and how they interact with each other, based on their role in solving the problem.
• What must a software developer do before designing a subroutine to solve a particular problem?


  See whether it is possible for an already existing subroutine or module to be used
• State two advantages of utilising reusable components

  • More reliable than newly-coded components, as they have already been tested.
  • This saves time, money and resources.