computer system software. This type of software is
designed to prevent both known and unknown viruses
from invading a system, and to detect and remove those
already present. Virus detection software (IBMAV) is
available free to all DON activities from Naval
Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center In-
Service Engineering, East Coast Division
(NISEEAST), in Charleston, South Carolina. For more
information concerning virus software, refer to chapter
2 in this module.
Utilities of the Future
What can you expect to see in the fuure? More and
more, you will see vendors combining several utilities
into one package. These packages will be difficult to
categorize because they will work with operating
systems, application programs, and peripherals. For
example, a file maintenance utility may combine
several commonly used programs such as disk
diagnostic and recovery utilities, a DOS shell, hard-disk
backup, a desktop manager, and a disk optimizer (a
compression utility).
So, how do you go about staying on top of the latest
and greatest utility packages available? That’s easy !
You can learn about utility programs by reading trade
magazines and software reviews. Let the experts do the
leg-work of evaluation for you. There are so many
utilities available on the market that it would be
impossible for you to do a good job of evaluating them
on your own. Vendors of application software and local
computer clubs are other good sources of information.
USER REQUIREMENTS
To translate user requirements into technical terms,
the first skill you will need is the ability to communicate
with the users. Usually, the users know what they want
and need, but they do not always know how to phrase it
and put it into a logical process. That is where you, the
computer specialist, come into play. As
communications specialists, we have to be able to
translate their ideas into a logical process. One effective
method we can use is pseudocode because the code can
be easily read and understood by both users and
communications specialists (figure 3-12). After we
determine the process and document it in pseudocode,
we take the pseudocode to the users for their review to
make sure we have covered all of their needs. After
talking with the users, we make any necessary changes,
then go back to the users again. As the programmer, it is
your responsibility to determine the necessity and
feasibility of the user’s requirements to avoid
unnecessary or even impossible programming. We
continue this process until the users have no more
changes and approve the pseudocode. The approval is
required before moving on to the development of the
program requirements.
Determine System Software Requirements
When we start to determine the system software
requirements, we look at the pseudocode and the user’s
requested end product(s) to determine whether a
commercial software package is available to
accomplish the job or if we will need to develop an in-
house program.
Figure 3-12.—Pseudocode example.
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