Book 28 — Information System Design
by The Editor
9. Significance of SALADIN
Because of its fundamental simplicity, SALADIN can be used at any level to analyse the objectives, structure, and operation of any organisation or any system within an organisation.
Because a SALADIN specification contains only two table types, four dependency types, and a few simple English phrases, it is a highly effective means of codifying the human knowledge inherent in any kind of expertise. It is therefore an invaluable aid to constructing "expert" systems.
Because it reduces any and every system to tables and every table represents about the same design and construction work as every other, SALADIN constitutes an effective means of measuring the work entailed in constructing specified systems and enables the resources committed to complex projects to be closely controlled.
If, for example, it is estimated that one table represents design and construction work amounting to two-and-a-half man-days using the resources at the project's disposal, then it can confidently be predicted that construction of a system containing 200 tables will require approximately 500 man-days. This provides a good basis for allocating resources, monitoring performance, and controlling costs.
Because performance is measurable in terms of tables constructed, projections may be refined as the project proceeds and more experience is gained.
Because SALADIN defines the processing of a system in very small modules and the processing of each module is started by the receipt of a signal external to that module, it facilitates the allocation of tasks to a battery of processors working in parallel.