Data-Flow Diagrams

data-flow Sender Receiver

payment client system
reminder system client

Rejected candidates for data-flows include:

• the internal copies of the invoice - these data-flows do not go outside the system boundary so
will not be part of this context diagram (but may feature on a more detailed DFD later)

• the client details card is filed IN the system, so this internal data-flow will not feature on the
context diagram

It is worth noting that the exchange of contracts between client and buyer is not a data-flow into
or out of the system, but this data-flow between external entities is relevant so ought to be notated
on the context diagram.

• Identify external entities by identifying sources and recipients of the data-flows, which lie outside
of the system under investigation.

This step is easy if we have created a table like the above, since we can just create a list of all the
different entities: client, buyer.

• Draw and label a process box representing the entire system:

• Draw and label the external entities around the outside of the process box. We just need to add
external entity symbols for 'client' and 'buyer'

• Add the data-flows between the external entities and the system box. We now need to add those
data-flows earlier. Our context diagram looks as follows:

We can check the diagram quickly looking at the table:

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