CHAPTER 3
SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT and DOCUMENTATION TECHNIQUES
Instructors Manual
Learning Objectives:
Prepare and use data flow diagrams to understand, evaluate and
design information systems.
Prepare and use flow
...
CHAPTER 3
SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT and DOCUMENTATION TECHNIQUES
Instructors Manual
Learning Objectives:
Prepare and use data flow diagrams to understand, evaluate and
design information systems.
Prepare and use flowcharts to understand, evaluate and design
information systems.
Questions to be addressed in this chapter include:
What is the purpose of documentation?
Why do accountants need to understand documentation?
What documentation techniques are used in accounting systems?
What are data flow diagrams and flowcharts?
• How are they alike and different?
• How are they prepared?
Techniques used to document a system
Narratives, flowcharts, diagrams and other written materials that
explain how a system works.
Documentation tools are important on one or more of the following
levels:
1. At minimum, you must be able to read documentation to
determine how the system works
2. You may be required to evaluate internal control systems
documentation to identify control strengths and weaknesses
and recommend improvements. Alternatively, you may have to
evaluate the documentation for a proposed system to
determine if the system meets the company’s needs
3. The greatest amount of skill is needed to prepare
documentation. If you are a member of a team that is
developing a new system, then you must prepare
documentation to show how both the existing and the
proposed systems operate.
Introduction
Page 2 of 13
This chapter discusses the following documentation tools:
1. Data flow diagram, a graphical description of the source
and destination of data that shows data flow within an
organization, the processes performed on the data, and
how data are stored
2. Document flowchart, a graphical description of the flow
of documents and information between departments or
areas of responsibility within an organization
3. System flowchart, a graphical description of the
relationship among the input, processing and output in
an information system.
4. Program flowchart, a graphical description of the
sequence of logical operations that a computer performs
as it executes a program
Data Flow Diagrams
A data flow diagram (DFD) graphically describes the flow of data
within an organization.
Elements in a Data Flow Diagram
Four Basic Elements:
(1) Data sources and destinations
(2) Data flows
(3) Transformation processes
(4) Data stores
Data flow diagram symbols shown in Figure 3-1 on Page 64:
Data sources and destinations
Data flows
Transformation processes
Data stores
Figure 3-2 on Page 64 shows the basic data flow diagram elements.
Learning Objective One
Prepare and use data flow diagrams to understand,
evaluate and design information systems.
Page 3 of 13
Data Sources and Destinations
Data sources and data destinations are represented by squares, as
illustrated by items A (customer), J (bank) and K (credit
manager) in Figure 3-3 on Page 65.
A data flow represents the flow of data between processes, data
stores and data sources and destinations.
Processes represent the transformation of data. Figure 3-3 shows
that process payment (c) takes the customer payment and splits it
in to the remittance data and the deposit (which includes the
checks and deposit sli
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