Experimental investigations of the utility of detailed flowcharts in programming

  • Authors:
  • Ben Shneiderman;Richard Mayer;Don McKay;Peter Heller

  • Affiliations:
  • Univ. of Maryland, College Park;Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara;Indiana Univ., Bloomington;Indiana Univ., Bloomington

  • Venue:
  • Communications of the ACM
  • Year:
  • 1977

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Abstract

This paper describes previous research on flowcharts and a series of controlled experiments to test the utility of detailed flowcharts as an aid to program composition, comprehension, debugging, and modification. No statistically significant difference between flowchart and nonflowchart groups has been shown, thereby calling into question the utility of detailed flowcharting. A program of further research is suggested.