DATA FLOW DIAGRAM (DFD)

Data Flow Diagramming is a means of representing a system at any level of detail with a graphic network of symbols showing data flows, data stores, data processes, and data sources/destinations.

 external entities, - sources or destinations of data. processes, - data as input, do something to it, and output it. data flows - which can either be electronic data or physical items. data stores, -including electronic stores such as databases and physical stores such as or stacks of paper

There are several common modeling rules that follow when creating DFDs:
All processes must have at least one data flow in and one data flow out. All processes should modify the incoming data, producing new forms of outgoing data. Each data store must be involved with at least one data flow. Each external entity must be involved with at least one data flow. A data flow must be attached to at least one process.

Advantages of data flow diagrams

It gives further understanding of the interestedness of the system and sub-systems It is useful from communicating current system knowledge to the user Used as part of the system documentation files Dataflow diagram helps to substantiate the logic underlining the dataflow of the organization It gives the summary of the system DFD is very easy to follow errors and it is also useful for quick reference to the development team for locating and controlling errors

Disadvantages of data flow diagram DFD is likely to take many alteration before agreement with the user Physical consideration are usually left out

Purpose/Objective:
The purpose of data flow diagrams is to provide a semantic bridge between users and systems developers. The diagrams are: Graphical, eliminating thousands of words; Logical representations, modeling WHAT a system does, rather than physical models showing HOW it does it; Hierarchical, showing systems at any level of detail jargon(language) less, allowing user understanding and reviewing.

Procedure
The procedure for producing a data flow diagram is to: identify and list external entities providing inputs/receiving outputs from system; identify and list inputs from/outputs to external entities; create a context diagram with system at center and external entities sending and receiving data flows; identify the business functions included within the system boundary; identify the data connections between business functions; confirm through personal contact sent data is received and vice-versa;

 trace and record what happens to each of the data flows entering the system (data movement, data storage, data transformation/processing) attempt to connect any diagram segments into a rough draft; verify all data flows have a source and destination; verify data coming out of a data store goes in; redraw to simplify--ponder and question result; review with "informed"; explode and repeat above steps as needed.