For living fifteen years of my life, this is my first time to encounter flowcharting and I'm so happy that I was one of the students who are given the chance to know more about this topic. To be honest, I also don't know the true meaning of algorithm and their difference and now that I know about it, I will use and share my learnings with others.
At first, I really find it difficult to study the concept of flowcharting. I was able to know some of the basic symbols and also the cycle of program development. Well, as some of my readers don't know everything about this, I will elaborate this so-called program development cycle and basic symbols.
> The Program Development Cycle
1. Review of Programing Specifications
- In able to develop a program, you must analyze first the problem in able to arrive at the complete solution. You should also develop a list of problem variables and their relationship, and determine the required format in which the results should be displayed. Thus, we must take note of the following:
B. Output Specifications
C. File Specification
D. Process Specification
2. Program Design
- In this stage, we will now apply our learnings in flowcharting. As we all know flowcharting is a systematic diagram showing the step-by-step procedure in able to solve a problem. Before we solve a problem, we must arrive at a proper plan. Without making a design, this may lead to many errors.
- Coding in programming is the process of writing the instructions in a programming language that implement the logic developed in the design phase of the program development cycle. There are five steps in program coding:
B. Entering the Program
C. Saving the Program
D. Executing the Program
E. Interpreting/Compiling the Program
4. Program Testing
- This stage is just like copyreading in writing. In this part, you will find the errors in your program so that you will still be able to arrive at a proper solution.
- Program documentation explains best how a certain program works in able for the program users to understand how they can utilize it. There are two levels of documentation:
B. External Documentation (available to users of the program)
Now that I have finished elaborating the Program Development Cycle, I will show you some of the basic symbols used in flowcharting. (To further understand Program Development Cycle, Click Here.)
> FLOWCHARTING SYMBOLS
| Symbol | Symbol Name (Alternate Shape Name) | Symbol Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Terminator (Terminal Point, Oval) | Terminators show the start and stop points in a process. When used as a Start symbol, terminators depict a trigger action that sets the process flow into motion. |
 | Process | Show a Process or action step. This is the most common symbol in both process flowcharts and business process maps. |
 | Predefined Process (Subroutine) | A Predefined Process symbol is a marker for another process step or series of process flow steps that are formally defined elsewhere. This shape commonly depicts sub-processes (or subroutines in programming flowcharts). If the sub-process is considered "known" but not actually defined in a process procedure, work instruction, or some other process flowchart or documentation, then it is best not to use this symbol since it implies a formally defined process. |
 | Alternate Process | As the shape name suggests, this flowchart symbol is used when the process flow step is an alternate to the normal process step. Flow lines into an alternate process flow step are typically dashed. |
 | Decision | Indicates a question or branch in the process flow. Typically, a Decision flowchart shape is used when there are 2 options (Yes/No, No/No-Go, etc.) |
 | Data (I/O) | The Data flowchart shape indicates inputs to and outputs from a process. As such, the shape is more often referred to as an I/O shape than a Data shape. |
Source: http://www.breezetree.com/article-excel-flowchart-shapes.htm
Author: Nicholas Hebb. Copyright 2006-2008.
(For more flowcharting symbols, Click Here.)