On Structured Manuals Analysis and Designfor Japanese Enterprises

摘要

This paper tries to establish an analysis and design methodrnfor internationally intelligible Japanese business manualsrncompilation, using a theory of transformation between arnnatural language and a systems language which consists ofrnDFDs (Data Flow Diagrams), ERDs (Entity RelationshiprnDiagrams) and Mini-specs.rnIn Japanese enterprises nowadays, business manuals arernvirtually a kind of policy statement or a list of “kitei”, orrnregulations which do not specify detailed businessrnprocedures. On the other hand, a typical Americanrnbusiness manual defines step-by-step business processes inrngreater detail. Moreover, unlike American companies,rnJapanese enterprises are not utilizing business manuals forrnthe purpose of analyzing and design of computer systemsrnand software.rnRecently, however, because of the now de facto globalrnstandards in terms of quality control (ISO9000s),rnenvironment protection (ISO14000s) and accountingrnprocedures (IAS) or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)rncomputer application package which contains some partsrnof these standards, Japanese enterprises have come tornrealize the importance of incorporating American stylernbusiness manuals.rnWith this background in mind, this paper firstly definesrnthe major characteristics essential for an “ideal” businessrnmanual that on the one hand takes into considerationrncurrent global business standards and on the other hand isrncompatible with the notion of systems analysis or design.rnAlso, optimal business manual written in a naturalrnlanguage should be able to be transformed automaticallyrninto systems language expressed in DFDs and ERDs andrnMini-specs. Finally this paper tries to establish arntransformation theory called Structured Manuals Analysisrnand Design Theory.rnFirst of all, in researching preceding works related tornsystems language, this paper found that the current systemsrnlanguages are designed to easily be translated directly fromrnnatural language (English) with only several basicrntransformation rules.rnSecondly, this paper found that the structure of a typicalrnAmerican business manual is closely related and coherentrnto the structure of a systems language, i.e. the policy partrncorresponding to ERD, the procedure part to the DFD andrnthe process part to the Mini-spec.rnThirdly, to apply the transformation rules to manualsrnwritten in the Japanese language, this paper utilizes suchrnlinguistic concepts as “surface structure” and “deeprnstructure” (N.Chomsky) with “structured inter-language”rnwhich will be defined precisely later in this paper. Tornconvert a natural language into the systems language, thernstructured inter-language supported by “Deep CasernTheory” (C.Fillmore) plays the most important role inrnterms of verifying the semantic equivalence betweenrnnatural and systems languages.rnFinally this conversion theory is computerized into arnsoftware package named SMAD (Structured ManualsrnAnalysis and Design). The SMAD has already beenrnsuccessfully applied to Japanese enterprises’ businessrnprocedures and proven to be valid.rnThe transformation theory also covers reverserntransformation, i.e. from the systems language into arnnatural language – in our case, English or Japanese.rnAlthough there are some points to be improved, therntransformation theory will contribute to Japanesernenterprises that are about to be globalized by letting themrnutilize an effective business procedure manual.