SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

CAHPTER#5.4 – DATA FLOW DIAGRAMS

05/10/2025 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING - MOHAMMAD NADER 1

Data Flow Diagrams- Definition
The Data Flow Diagram is a type of graphical representation of
01 the flow of data through an information system.

This diagram is often used as a preliminary step in designing

02 a system to create an overview of this information system

Data flow diagram (DFD) is a picture of the movement of

03 data between external entities and the processes and data
stores within a system

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Data Flow Diagrams- Symbols
Process Processes are activities that change or transform
data.
Data flows are the routes that information takes as
it travels between external entities, processes and
Data Flow data stores.
These are the locations in a DFD where data is
Data Store stored for later use. Data stores could
represent databases, documents, files or any
repository for data storage.

These are the starting and

Source/Sink (External Entity) ending points for the data
flow in a DFD.

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Data Flow Diagrams- Process
• Work or actions performed on data (inside the system): computation, sorting,
validation, etc..
• Labels should be verb phrases
• Receives input data and produces output

1.0 Grade Report

Grade Detail
Produce
Grade
Report

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Data Flow Diagrams- Rule 1 - Process
• Can have more than one outgoing data flow or more than one
incoming data flow

1.0 Graded Work

Submitted Work
Grade
Student Student Grade
Work

3.0
Hours Worked
Gross Pay
Calculated
Pay Rate
Gross
Pay

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Data Flow Diagrams- Rule 2 - Process
• Can connect to any other symbol (including another process
symbol)

1.0 2.0
Order Inventory
Accepted Order Change
Verify Assemble
Order Order

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Data Flow Diagrams- Correct / Incorrect?
5.0

Services Perfomed Invoice

Create
Invoice

Policy Number Payment Amount

Apply
Insurance
Premium

2.1
Hours Worked Pay Rate
Calculate
Gross
Pay

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Data Flow Diagrams- Data Flow
• Is a path for data to move from one part of the Information System
(IS) to another(external entity to process, process to external entity, process to process,
process to Data store, Data store to process)

• Arrows depicting movement of data

• Can represent flow between process and data store by two separate
arrows
2.1
Payment Detail

D1 Accounts
Invoice Detail
Post Receivable
Payment

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Data Flow Diagrams- Correct / Incorrect?
5.0

Post
Payment

Courses Customer
Payment

Class D2 Daily Payments

List

Daily
Payment
Students

6.0

Prepare
Deposit

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Data Flow Diagrams- Data Store
• Is used in a DFD to represent data that the system stores
• Labels should be noun phrases

D1 Students

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Data Flow Diagrams- Data Store - Rule
• Must have at least one incoming and one outgoing data flow

Customer Payment

D1 Daily
Payments

Daily Payment

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 Data Flow Diagrams- Source/Sink
• External entity that is origin or destination of data (outside the system)
• Is the singular form of a department, outside organization, other IS, or person
• Labels should be noun phrases
• Source – Entity that supplies data to the system
• Sink – Entity that receives data from the system

1.0
Order

CUSTOMER
Invoice Verify
Order

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Data Flow Diagrams- Correct / Incorrect?
CUSTOMER CUSTOMER
PAYROLL
DEPARTMENT

Payment Payment
Paycheck

3.0
Accounts
EMPLOYEE
Receivable
Apply
Payment

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Data Flow Diagrams- Rules for Using DFD
Symbols
Data Flow That Connects YES NO

A process to another process

A process to an external entity

A process to a data store

An external entity to another external entity

An external entity to a data store

A data store to another data store

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Data Flow Diagrams- List The Errors
DF2
E1 1.0

DF5 P2

DF1 DS1
DF3

DF6

2.0
DF4

DF2 P1

E1

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Data Flow Diagrams- Context Diagram
 Top-level view of Software
 Shows the system boundaries, external entities that interact with
the system, and major information flows between entities and the
system.
 Example: Order system that a company uses to enter orders and
apply payments against a customer’s balance

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 Order
Contex CUSTOMER WAREHOUSE

t
Diagra Order
Reject
Picking

m Payment Invoice
Notice
List

Exampl
e#1 0 Completed
Order
Order
System

Bank Cash
Commission Receipts
Deposit
Entry

SALES
ACCOUNTING BANK
REP

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Context Diagram
Example#2

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Data Flow Diagrams- Level-0 DFD
Shows the system’s major processes, data flows, and data stores
at a high level of abstraction
When the Context Diagram is expanded into DFD level-0, all the
connections that flow into and out of process 0 needs to be
retained.

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DFD-0 Example#1 CUSTOMER
Order Picking List
WAREHOUSE

1.0

Fill
Order Order
Reject
Notice

Invoice

2.0
Payment
Create Completed
Invoice
Invoice Order

Accounts
D1 Receivable

Invoice
Payment 3.0
Detail
Detail

Apply
Payment

Commission Bank Deposit Cash Receipts Entry

SALES
BANK ACCOUNTING
REP

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Data Flow Diagrams- Levelled Diagram

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Data Flow Diagrams- Strategies for
Developing
 Top-down strategy DFDs
◦ Create the high-level diagrams (Context Diagram), then low-level diagrams (Level-0
diagram), and so on
 Bottom-up strategy
◦ Create the low-level diagrams, then higher-level diagrams

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Data Flow Diagrams- Exercise#1
 Design a context diagram and level-0 DFD for an online shopping system.
 The system should allow users to browse products through the browsing
process, add items to their cart through another process, place orders
through the Ordering process which also save the order details into the
orders file, the user is also able to make payments through a process
which save invoice details to the accounting file and also send the invoice
to the user.
 The system should also have an manager component which keep track
of product availability from the products file in addition to managing the
data in the orders file.

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Data Flow Diagrams- Exercise#2
 Consider the ATM System that acts as follows:
 User Login to the system using the login process which in its turn send the user info to the
users file and then get if the credentials is valid.
 User can withdraw money through a process which sends the amount to the check
balance process which send the balance status to the process that send a status message
to the user, then the withdraw process save the amount to the user balance file and to the
process that dispense the money to the user.
 On the other hand, the user is able to deposit amount of money where the deposit process
sends the amount to the user balance file in order to update it.
 Finally, user have a choice to reset the pin code through the update pin process that sends
the users data to the users file to update it.
 Draw the context diagram of the above system
 Draw the level-0 DFD

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Time For Questions!

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