Unit 39 — Data Flow Diagrams

Nature of a data flow diagram

As an alternative to systems flowcharts, another more recent way of representing a
system is by means of a data flow diagram. This type of diagram shows how the data
moves through the system, and what data stores are used. It does not define what type of
data storage is used, or how the data is stored. This type of detail can be determined at a
later stage.

Symbols used
Only four basic symbols are used, as shown below.

Entity - data source or data destination — people who receive

data
or output information

Process -an operation performed on the data. The two lines are
optional; the top section of the box can be used to label the
process,
the middle to give a brief explanation, and the bottom to say
where
the process takes place.

Data store - this could, for example, represent a file held on disk or
magnetic tape, a batch of input documents or a report.

Dataflow - the arrow represents movement of data between

entities, processes or data stores. The arrow should be labelled to
describe what data is involved.

When drawing data flow diagrams, you should stick to the following conventions:

• do not draw data flow lines directly between data stores and external entities;
there should be a process box between them to show the operation performed

• label the data flow lines so lhal it is clear what data is being transferred.

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 Example: The payroll system in a certain company may be described as follows:

At the end of each week time sheets are collected and sent to the computer centre. There,
the payroll data is entered via a key-to-disk system, verified and validated, producing a
new file of valid transactions on disk and an error report. This file is used to update the
employee master file, and cheques and payslips are printed. A payroll summary is also
printed for the Accounts Department.

Draw a data flow diagram to represent this system.

Solution: Note that different levels of data flow diagram are often used. A 'top level'
diagram could be drawn as follows:

paycheque & Employees

Employee Employee No, payslip data
Clerk Hours worked
Process
Payroll

Payroll summary
data Accounts Dept

The diagram can be broken down into greater detail (see over page)

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 Weekly transactions
Employee no,
hours worked,
batch control
employee Employee No, totals
hours worked
Employee no,
hours worked
Batch time employee
sheets

Name, pay rate,

tax code, etc.
Verify/validate
data
Employee no,
Invalid employee
hours worked
data, batch control
totals
Prepare
Employee no, Payroll Each employee:
hours worked Employee nos, pay,
tax, etc
Error report
Totals: pay, tax,etc

Employee no,
hours worked Employee no,
Print
pay, tax,etc.
paycheque &
payslips

Valid weekly transactions

Print payroll
summary

Each employee:
Employee nos, pay,
tax, etc
Employee no, Totals: pay, tax,etc
pay, tax,etc.

employee
Accounts
Section 5 — Systems Development dept

U39 DFD 3
Exercises:
1. A small company makes and sells pencils. Tie company is oiganised into six
departments:

A: Publishing -purchases and maintains a stock of raw materials for the

production of pencils.
B: Sales and despatch - sells the company's products, administers the sales and
despatches goods to the customers.
C: Production - manufactures the pencils.
D: Production scheduling -schedules production.
E: Accounts - controls the finances of the company and administers the
payroll.
F: Management - provides overall management of the company and planning
for the future.

(a) Produce an annotated diagram showing bow infacmation flows between the various
departments in the company, clearly indicating the direction of flow. (6 marks)
(b) The following applications of computing could be implemented in this company:
• a stock control system
• a financial accounting system dealing with paymenis to suppliers
• a production scheduling system.
(i) State four advantages of storing the data required for these applications in a
relational database rather than in separate files. (4 marks)
(ii) Describe an appropriate way of organising the data within the relational
database. (5 marks)

2. A wholesaler supplies several hundred garages with spare parts.

The wholesaler has a stock of approximately twelve thousand parts. About 250 orders are
delivered by van each day. Customers place (heir orders by telephone and expect to be
told at that time, when the goods will be delivered.
The existing manual system has several problems:
• delays in stock record updating and invoice preparation
• inaccurate stock records
• uneconomic stock control procedures
• uneconomic delivery schedules.

The wholesaler is considering installing a computer-based system to replace the manual

system.

(a) Describe the record structures of the required files in terms of the nature and size of
their data items. Explain how the Files could be linked. (6 marks)
(b) Explain, with the use of a systems flowchart or otherwise, how a computer-based
system could manage the wholesaler's requirements. (6 marks)
(c) Briefly describe three ways in which the wholesaler could use a computer-based
system other Bian to eliminate the problems listed above. (3 marks)

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3. A school is considering implementing a software package to assist in the clerical
aspects of producing its timetable. It is intended that the software will check a proposed
timetable to identify clashes and, when a clashes have been removed, will print
timetables in appropriate formats. This will include the full timetable for the school and
individual timetables for each teacher (showing which classes are taught, when and
where) and for each room (showing which class and teacher are using that room in each
of the 40 periods of the week). Class timetables and timetables for specialist groups
within the fourth, fifth and sixth forms will also be needed.

(a) Describe the data which would be needed and how it could be organised in the
package. (8 marks)
(b) Discuss how the package could be designed as a collection of modules and how each
module would integrate with the other modules. (6 marks)
(c) Indicate clearly the flow of data from input to output throughout the system(5 marks)

U39 DFD 5