Structured programming and compliance processes
Fifty years ago, computer scientists bid goodbye to confusing spaghetti code. Complicated top-down process diagrams were replaced by smaller, clearer sub-programs (procedures) based on Hoare and Wirth's ideas. Today, unfortunately, diagrams resembling the old data flowcharts displayed in the Bern Museum of Communication proliferate in compliance departments, frequently printed on A3 or even A2. While these compliance process diagrams may look impressive and intellectual, they’re unfortunately complicated and error-prone, like the old data flowcharts.
Image: A flow chart of the program used by PTT in 1968 to process phone bills on an IBM 1401
