Software Engineering Lecture - DFD
Software Engineering Lecture - DFD
Concepts
(Spring 2024)
Behavioural Models
Behavioral models are used to describe the overall behavior of a
system.
DFD Components
DFDs consist of four basic components that illustrate how
data flows in a system: entity, process, data store, and data
flow.
Process: work or actions performed on data (inside the
system).
Data Store: Data at rest (inside the system).
Source/ Sink: External entity that is origin or destination of
data (outside the system).
Data flow: arrows depicting movement of data.
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DFD Components
Entity:
An entity is the source or destination of data. Entities either provide
data to the system (referred to as a source) or receive data from it
(referred to as a sink).
Process:
The process is the manipulation or work that transforms data. In
other words, a process receives input and generates some output.
Process names (simple verbs, such as “Submit Payment” or “Get
Invoice”).
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DFD Components
Data Store:
A data store is where a process stores data for later retrieval by that
same process or another one. Files and tables are considered data
stores. Data store names are simple but meaningful, such as
“customers,” “orders,” and “products.”
Data Flow:
Data flow is the movement of data between the entity, the process,
and the data store. Data flow portrays the interface between the
components of the DFD.
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DFD Components
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Bidirectional flow
between process
and data store is
represented by
two separate
arrows.
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DFD Levels
• Level 1DFD
• Level- 2 DFD
• Level-n DFD
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Level-1 DFD
Processes are
labeled 1.0, 2.0, etc.
These will be
decomposed into
more primitive (lower-
level) DFDs.
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Level-2 DFD
Level-n DFD
Exercise 1:
Draw a context level data flow diagram for a patient monitoring system.
Exercise 2
• A Customer can place an Order. The Order Food process receives
the Order, forwards it to the Chef, store it in the Order data store, and
store the updated Inventory details in the Inventory data store. The
process also delivers a Bill to the Customer.
• The Manager can receive Reports through the Generate Reports
process, which takes Inventory details and Orders as input from the
Inventory and Order data store respectively.
• The Manager can also initiate the Order Inventory process by
providing an Inventory order. The process forwards the Inventory
order to the Supplier and stores the updated Inventory details in the
Inventory data store.
Solution