TY - JOUR T1 - Experimental investigations of the utility of detailed flowcharts in programming JF - Communications of the ACM Y1 - 1977 A1 - Shneiderman, Ben A1 - Mayer,Richard A1 - McKay,Don A1 - Heller,Peter KW - Debugging KW - experimental testing KW - flowcharts KW - human factors KW - modification KW - program composition KW - program comprehension AB - 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. VL - 20 SN - 0001-0782 UR - http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/359605.359610 CP - 6 M3 - 10.1145/359605.359610 ER -