This same is also known by another name when it's used to teach new programmers: pseudo code.
Sadly, because it's associated with learners/juniors, pseudo code gets a bad rap. But really, all engineering is translating English into code ... which means almost any complex operation (setting up a new employee's account, or anything else) can be made clearer by utilizing such an "in-between English and code" step.
In the article they used Python, but for all the important stuff, they didn't: they used English. A "do-nothing" script is really just a script where instead of converting pseudo code to code (like programmers normally do), you just leave the English/pseudo code in, and wrap it with a print.
Never heard pseudocode getting a bad rap. It is good for archutecture discussions, decision documents, comments and so on. But I don't often hear it referenced by name. I also think geohot(?) said something like "Python is popular as it feels like you are writing psuedocode". And I agree!
It goes by many names. I believe the original name was checklist. It used to be written on paper by the ancient ones and followed step by step until the task was complete.
Sadly, because it's associated with learners/juniors, pseudo code gets a bad rap. But really, all engineering is translating English into code ... which means almost any complex operation (setting up a new employee's account, or anything else) can be made clearer by utilizing such an "in-between English and code" step.
In the article they used Python, but for all the important stuff, they didn't: they used English. A "do-nothing" script is really just a script where instead of converting pseudo code to code (like programmers normally do), you just leave the English/pseudo code in, and wrap it with a print.