It is recommended to '''plan''' out on a piece of paper the purpose of the shell script.<br>You can do this by creating a simple '''IPSO''' diagram (stands for '''INPUT''', '''PROCESSING''', '''STORAGE''', '''OUTPUT''').<br> First, list the INPUTS into the script (eg. prompting user for data, reading data from file, etc), then listing the expected OUTPUTS from the script.<br>Finally, you can listing the steps to process the INPUT to provide the OUTPUT (including file storage).<br>In the case, you start with the diagram, then generate a list of steps that will help you code your shell script.