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DataFlowDiagramwithExamplesFoodOrderingSystem

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Data Flow Diagram with Examples - Food Ordering System

February 16, 2015

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Data Flow Diagram (DFD) provides a visual representation of the ow of information (i.e. data) within a system. By drawing a Data Flow
Diagram, you can tell the information provided by and delivered to someone who takes part in system processes, the information needed in
order to complete the processes and the information needed to be stored and accessed. This article describes and explain Data Flow Diagram
(DFD) by using a food ordering system as an example.

The Food Ordering System Example

Context DFD
The gure below shows a context Data Flow Diagram that is drawn for a Food Ordering System. It contains a process (shape) that represents
the system to model, in this case, the "Food Ordering System". It also shows the participants who will interact with the system, called the
external entities. In this example, Supplier, Kitchen, Manager and Customer are the entities who will interact with the system. In between the
process and the external entities, there are data ow (connectors) that indicate the existence of information exchange between the entities
and the system.

Context DFD is the entrance of a data ow model. It contains one and only one process and does not show any data store.

Level 1 DFD
The gure below shows the level 1 DFD, which is the decomposition (i.e. break down) of the Food Ordering System process shown in the
context DFD. Read through the diagram and then we will introduce some of the key concepts based on this diagram.

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The Food Order System Data Flow Diagram example contains three processes, four external entities and two data stores.
Based on the diagram, we know that a Customer can place an Order. The Order Food process receives the Order, forwards it to the Kitchen,
store it in the Order data store, and store the updated Inventory details in the Inventory data store. The process also deliver a Bill to the

Customer.
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.
Manager can also initiate the Order Inventory process by providing Inventory order. The process forwards the Inventory order to the Supplier
and stores the updated Inventory details in the Inventory data store.

Data Flow Diagram Tips and Cautions

Don't overdrawn
In a Data Flow Diagram, we focus on the interactions between the system and external parties, rather than the internal communications
among interfaces. Therefore, data ows between interfaces and the data stores used are considered to be out of scope and should not be
shown in the diagram.

Don't mix up data ow and process ow

Some designers may feel uncomfortable when seeing a connector connecting from a data store to a process, without seeing the step of data
request being shown on the diagram somehow. Some of them will try to represent a request by adding a connector between a process and a
data store, labeling it "a request" or "request for something", which is wrong.
Keep in mind that Data Flow Diagram was designed for representing the exchange of information. Connectors in a Data Flow Diagram are for
representing data, not for representing process ow, step or anything else. When we label a data ow that ends at a data store "a request", this
literally means we are passing a request as data into a data store. Although this may be the case in implementation level as some of the DBMS
do support the use of functions, which intake some values as parameters and return a result, in Data Flow Diagram, we tend to treat data store
as a sole data holder that does not possess any processing capability. If you want to model the system ow or process ow, use UML Activity
Diagram or BPMN Business Process Diagram instead. If you want to model the internal structure of data store, use Entity Relationship
Diagram.

Resources
Food-Ordering-System.vpp

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Comments (12)
written by Pakaya on June 6, 2015
Thanks alot !!! :)

written by sardar Ali on June 26, 2015

thanks

written by Graevenz on July 26, 2015

This site helps alot i am trying the software now

written by GIRI on September 28, 2015

its good....

written by sunil kumar das on February 26, 2016

Thanks alot

written by sandy on April 29, 2016

excellent

written by Irfan Ullah on May 4, 2016

please, is can I read level 2 of this Diagram?

written by Jick Yeung (VP) on May 5, 2016

Hi Irfan,
This example doesnt come with level DFD. You may read the following tutorial instead:
https://www.visual-paradigm.com/tutorials/data- ow-diagram-example-securities-tradingplatform.jsp

written by fdsfsd on August 5, 2016

fsdf

written by Test on August 5, 2016

good dFd

written by Abood on August 19, 2016

data ow diagram graphic (label) Why not have a title

written by Jick Yeung (VP) on August 22, 2016

Hi Abood,
Thank you for your post but we do not quite understand what you mean by to have a title, and what

https://www.visualparadigm.com/tutorials/dataflowdiagramexamplefoodorderingsystem.jsp

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you meant by a label. In the diagram presented under this tutorial, both the shapes and connectors
are labelled. Could you provide more details?

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