In a nutshell...
Data Processing describes actions on data with little,
if any, user interaction. This is in contrast to
an application which is designed to have interaction
with a user all the time.
As an example: A few years ago
I was contracted to provide a system that would
generate insurance quotes for customers. On a monthly
basis data was:
• Exported and picked up from a mainframe
computer.
• Had over fifty different operations performed
on each record.
• Sliced and diced records according to different
demographic marketing strategies.
• Forwarded to mailing houses for printing
and delivery.
95% of this operation was done with no user input
and no GUI.
Tell me more...
When deciding what type of system you need, it
helps to be clear what the system is to achieve.
You don't want to build an application when all
you need is a processing system.
Even if the processing requires occasional input
from a user, it's usually more cost effective
to train someone how to perform that task than
to create a full blown application just so a user
can tweak a few parts of the process.
Anything else?
The other thing to consider about processing systems
is that they are usually linear in their execution.
For example, the process will start at point A
and once complete, will move to task B,
then task C etc, until the whole
process is complete.
This is in contrast to an application. With an
application, a user might start at point A
and is maybe then required to move to point D
(missing out B & C)
to complete a different part of the process.
Making the distinction in your requirements between
a processing system and an application allows
you to focus on your requirements from the correct
perspective.
Processing systems are also usually easier to
build than applications because they are linear
(A, B then C
etc) in their execution. This simplifies the design
and the actual building of the system. It also
means you dont have to consider user interaction
which is a big expense in terms of time to accomodate
user functionality.
Linear processing also allows you to make changes
very simply. For example, lets say at 'step 27',
a price value needed to be changed to include
a discount, this would be very easy to change
without affecting the rest of the steps in the
process.
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