Interview Questions for Business Analysts and Systems Analysts

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INTERVIEW QUESTION:

What is Structured English (aka pseudocode)? Please provide an example.

Posted by Adrian M.

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Categories: Systems Analysis, Functional Specifications

ANSWER

Structured English or pseudocode is a technique used by systems analysts (and sometimes by IT business analysts) to model and document logic of information processes.

It is a form of English often used in functional or system specifications and it looks a bit like programming statements but does not have a compiler readable syntax.

Structured English uses a subset of English as follows:

Action verbs (ex: display, save, delete, etc.)
Noun phrases (ex: bank account, customer, etc.)
Set of well defined keywords (IF, FOR EACH, WHILE)
NO adjectives or adverbs

Example:

FOR-EACH Account belonging to the Customer

IF Account is NOT closed THEN

Display account on the screen

END-IF

END-FOR-EACH

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Do your homework prior to the business analysis interview!

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