DFD Naming Convention
DFD Naming Convention
DFD Naming Convention
Diagrams:
DFD Naming Convention – how to name data flows, processes, entities and data
stores
Lecture 06 DFD – explanation of Module 6, Data Flow Diagrams
Decomposition Diagram and Context Diagram – how to construct a Decomposition
Diagram and a Context Diagram
Level 0 Diagram – how to construct a Level 0 Diagram from a Decomposition and a
Context Diagram
For processes, the following are all the legal data flow connections.50
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And here’s all the legal data flow connections with data stores.
In essence, entity and data store symbols should not be connected to other
similar
symbols without a process between them. Any data coming to an entity or a
data store
should come from a process symbol, and in similar terms, any data coming
from an entity
or a data store should go to a process symbol. We’ll look into the common
mistakes more
in the following section.
Common DFD Mistakes
Most system developers and analysts, even some professionals, often commit
mistakes when drawing their DFD. In this section, we’ll identify the common
DFD mistakes
in hopes that you’ll avoid them when creating your own. The following are
things you’d
want to keep in mind when drawing a DFD.
●
Illegal Data Flows
○
An external entity cannot provide data to another external entity without a
process (Entity-to-Entity).
○
Data cannot move directly from an external entity to a data store without
being processed (Entity-to-Data Store).
○
Data cannot move directly from a data store to an external entity without
being processed (Data Store-to-Entity).
○
Data cannot move directly from one data store to another without being
processed (Data Store-to-Data Store).
●
Black Hole - This refers to process symbols that have input data flows but
doesn’t have any output data flow(s).
●
Miracle/Spontaneous Generation - This refers to process symbols that have
output data flows but doesn’t have any input data flow(s).
●
Grey Hole - This refers to process symbols where the input data flows aren’t
enough to produce the output data flow. Identifying this problem requires a
proper knowledge on the business process.
●
Identical names for data flows, data-store, processes, and entities.The figure
below shows a sample DFD diagram containing common DFD
mistakes. It’s best to avoid these mistakes when creating your own DFD.
The next figure is your cheat sheet for identifying legal and illegal data flows.
51
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transmitting in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise of any part of this document, without the prior written
permission of SLU, is strictly prohibited.52
Property of and for the exclusive use of SLU. Reproduction, storing in a retrieval system, distributing, uploading or posting online, or
transmitting in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise of any part of this document, without the prior written
permission of SLU, is strictly prohibited.
You can watch the video of professor Kapil Shukla explaining the common
mistakes in creating DFD’s as well as the best way to avoid them. Lecture 6 -
DFD
Common Mistakes .mp4
You should also keep track of the proper use of symbols and identifiers in
your
diagram, and finally you should maintain the balance between your diagrams
as
discussed in the following section.
DFD Creation
System analysts and developers usually follow a three-step rule in developing
a
set of DFDs:
1.
Draw a context diagram,
2.
Draw a level 0 diagram, and
3.
Draw the lower-level diagrams (If applicable).
In the first step of DFD creation, Identify all the external entities in your
system, as
well as the data needed by said entities from the system, and the data
produced by the
entities. There is only one process symbol in the context diagram, and that is
the name
of the system itself. The number zero (0) is used to identify this process.
In developing the level 0 diagram, all the processes are numbered from 1 to
N,
with N being the total number of processes in the diagram. Do take note of the
functional
primitivity of your processes as well. Functional primitives refer to the lowest
levels of
DFD and can no longer be exploded or decomposed to lower level diagrams.
If you can
identify processes that can still be decomposed, then proceed to create the
appropriate
lower level diagram.