Functional and

Behavioural Modeling

Data Flow Diagram

(DFD)

Graphical representation of functional
modeling

In analysis, provide representation of
information flow in existing and required
system

In design, the DFDs can be decomposed
into lower level processes (sub-systems)
for implementation

What is the software supposed to do?

TCS2411 Software Engineering

TCS2411 Software Engineering

Lecture Objectives

Context Diagram

To illustrate the modeling of functional

and behavioural characteristics of the
problem domain

To describe the elements of data flow
diagrams and the associated rules for
drawing them correctly

To describe the elements and usage of
state transition diagrams
TCS2411 Software Engineering

Customer

Customer Order

Kitchen

Food
Ordering
System

Receipt

Food Order

Management
Reports

Restaurant
Manager
2

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Functional Modeling

Level-1 DFD

In understanding the requirements of the

software, the functions required by the
customer will be identified

All the functions process information in
some way in the system

Basically input process output

Representation of how information is
transformed
TCS2411 Software Engineering

Customer Order

Customer
Receipt

Goods Sold

1. Process
Customer
Order

2. Update
Goods Sold
Goods Sold
Record

Goods Sold
3

Daily Goods
Sold Amounts

TCS2411 Software Engineering

Kitchen
Food Order
Inventory
Data

3. Update
Inventory
4. Produce
Management
Reports
Management
Reports

Inventory
Record

Daily Inventory Inventory

Depletion Amounts

Restaurant
Manager

External Entity

Data Store

A producer or consumer of information

that resides outside the bounds of the
system to be modeled

Source - producer of information

Sink - consumer of information

Examples:
Customer

Supplier

A repository of data that is to be stored

for use by one or more processes

May be as simple as a buffer or queue or
as sophisticated as a relational database

Examples:
Students

Management

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Process

2. Student
Registration

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Process
No process can have only outputs.
No process can have only inputs.
A process has a verb label.

2.1 Accept
Registration
Details

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Data Flow

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DFD Rules

Data object that flows in the system; the

arrowhead indicates the direction of data
flow

Data Store
Data cannot move directly from one data
store to another data store.
Data cannot move directly from an outside
source to a data store.
Data cannot move directly to an outside sink
from a data store.
A data store has a noun phrase label.

new student record

student record

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Courses

DFD Rules

A transformer of information (a function)

that resides within the bounds of the
system to be modeled

Examples:
1.Process
New
Member

Inventory

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DFD Rules

DFD Characteristics

Source/Sink
Data cannot move directly from a source to a
sink. It must be moved by a process if the
data are of any concern to our system.
A source/sink has a noun phrase label.

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DFD Rules

Can be used to model physical or logical,

current or new systems

Does not represent procedural or timerelated processes

Revisions to the same DFD are done to
improve model based on understanding

Decision to stop iterative decomposition
may be difficult
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Behavioural Modeling

Data Flow

events

A data flow has only one direction of flow

between symbols.
A fork in data flow means that exactly the
same data goes from a common location to
two or more processes/stores/sources/sinks.
A join in a data flow means that exactly the
same data comes from any two or more
processes/stores/sources/sinks.
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Outside
world

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DFD Rules

behavior

Application

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Behavioural Modeling

Data Flow (continued)

A data flow cannot go directly back to the
same process it leaves.
A data flow to a data store means update.
A data flow from a data store means retrieve
or use.
A data flow has a noun phrase label. More
than one data flow noun phrase can appear
on a single arrow.
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Representation of how the system

changes and the events that cause the
changes to happen

Also represent actions that may be taken
as consequences of events

Graphically drawn as state transition
diagram
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State Transition
Diagram (STD) Notation

Software Engineering: A Practitioners

Approach 5th Ed. by Roger S. Pressman,
Mc-Graw-Hill, 2001

Software Engineering by Ian Sommerville,
Addison-Wesley, 2001

Modern Systems Analysis and Design by
Jeffrey A. Hoffer, Joey F. George & Joseph
S. Valacich, Benjamin/Cummings, 1996

State
Event causing transition
Action that occurs

New state

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References

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State Transition
Diagram (STD)
announce
complete

Idle

hangup

incoming call

button
pressed

initiate answer

Connected

Ringing

answered announce message

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State Transition
Diagram Elements

State - any observable mode of behaviour
represented as a node in STD

State transition - change of one state to another

caused by an event
represented as labeled arrow in STD
label is the event causing the transition

Event - external or internal occurrence that has

an effect on the system

Action - process taken as response to event
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