Data Flow Diagrams

1. Data Flow Diagrams Student Philosophy Club

2. Business Philosophy Club • Business Philosophy Club (BPC) is a student group at Oakland University. • The club exists to talk about the philosophical foundations of business, listen to guest speakers and become better, more aware business people. • The club meets regularly and issues an annual report to its advisors and sponsors, who are OU professors.

3. System Goals • The BPC would like to systematize their activities. • The goals of the BPC include maintaining membership, having good meetings, and providing advisors and sponsors with reports.

4. MaintainMembership Run Good Meetings Provide Valid Reports SubsubGoal 1.1 SubsubGoal 1.2 SubsubGoal 1.3 SubsubGoal 2.1 SubsubGoal 2.2 SubsubGoal 2.3 SubsubGoal 3.1 SubsubGoal 3.2 SubsubGoal 3.3 Decomposition of Goals BPC Goals All systems, especially information systems, have goals. These goals can be “decomposed” or broken down into subgoals and the subgoals further broken down into subsubgoals, etc.

5. Goals into Processes • Each goal corresponds to an information process: • Maintaining membership requires a process to handle members and their information • Having good meetings requires a process to schedule and report on meetings • Good reporting needs a process to accumulate the information needed for the annual and ad hoc reports

6. Process 1:Handle Membership Process 2: Run Good Meetings Process 3: Provide Valid Reports Process 1.1 Process 1.2 Process 1.3 Process 2.1 Process 2.2 Process 2.3 Process 3.1 Process 3.2 Process 3.3 Decomposition and Processes System Goals are associated with processes. The “success” of each process means reaching the associated goal. In turn, that means that each process’s success depends on success of subprocesses.

7. Data Flow Diagram: Basic Elements “Member Name” for example 1.0 or 3.4.2, for example Data Flow Name Data Flow “Member List” for example Identifier Eg. “Register New Member” Data Store Name Identifier Process Name “A” for example Data Store “p” for example Process Box Identifier “Applicant” for example Actor Name External Actor

8. Membership Process • Business Philosophy Club (BPC) is a student group. It is open only to students at Oakland University in their third or fourth years who have major status in the SBA. Members pay a $10 registration fee. There are no other costs (such as annual membership). There are no other membership hurdles. • The application process consists of two subprocesses: An initial application query to determine eligibility and a process to handle the registration payment.

9. 1.1 Applicant-Info Applicant Questions Determine Eligibility Preliminary Applicant Decision Valid Application a Applicants Appli-cant A Data Flow Diagram: Basic Structures Applicant Eligibility Process

10. 1.2 Applicant-Payment Approve Application Applicant Approval Data Applicant Members’p Approval Application Info a Applicants Appli-cant A Data Flow Diagram: Basic Structures Applicant Approval Process

11. The Improvement Goal • Some of the current processes are inefficient. • Some may be problematic in that the information used or generated is wrong or misleading and may lead to poor decisions. • Some of the processes are inefficient or may be useless!

12. Incoming Data Flow 1 Incoming Data Flow 2 Incoming Data Flow 3 Xx.yy Resulting Data Flow Process Data Flow Diagram: Basic Laws 1 Law of Conservation of Information Information cannot come from nowhere. The result of any process must be traceable to the sum of the data flows entering the process.

13. BPC Meetings • Meetings are held about monthly, although the schedule isn’t rigidly fixed because the membership is so busy. • Members like to meet at the OC, but sometimes their favorite rooms aren’t available, nor are the members and the officers. • In the past, rooms to large or too small or incompatible with desired use were reserved

14. Attendee Information Venue Information Meeting properties 2.1 Scheduled Meeting Information ScheduleMeeting Data Flow Diagram: Basic Laws 1 (Example) Law of Conservation of Information The next meeting depends on the availability of the attendees, the availability of the room, and the type of meeting to be scheduled such as whether this is a philosophical debate or business meeting

15. Incoming Data Flow 1 Incoming Data Flow 2 Incoming Data Flow 3 PP.qq Resulting Data Flow Process Data Flow Diagram: Basic Laws 2 Law of Utilization of Information Information cannot go nowhere. The result of any process must depend on ALL of the data flows entering the process.

16. Meeting Minutes • To aid organizational memory, the minutes of each meeting are written up by the BPC scribe. • These minutes are based on notes that the scribe takes. • Sometimes the chair of the meeting “corrects” the minutes with his or her own comments.

17. Meeting Notes Schedule Information Chairperson Wishes 2.3 Meeting Minutes Create Minutes Data Flow Diagram: Basic Laws 2 (Example) Law of Utilization of Information The minutes of a meeting depend only on the notes taken at the meeting and additional information about scheduling, NOT what the chairperson wished had happened at the meeting

18. Incoming Data Flow 1 Incoming Data Flow 2 Incoming Data Flow 3 AA.bb Resulting Data Flow Process Data Flow Diagram: Basic Laws 3 Law of Logical Data Flow Information flows reflect logical dependency. Results of processes reflect a logical transformation of all of the inputs.

19. Reporting • An annual report of the meetings and finances is produced each year for the advisors and sponsors. • In the past, the annual report was able to include audited financial statements, but because of various circumstances, the annual report has had to be produced early.

20. Meeting Minutes Chairperson Wishes Next Year’s Audited Statements 3.4 Annual Report Create Annual Report Data Flow Diagram: Basic Laws 3 (Example) Law of Logical Data Flow The annual report cannot include a set of financial statements not available at the time the report is due.

21. Incoming Data Flow 1 AA.bb Resulting Data Flow Process Data Store A Data Flow Diagram: Basic Laws 4 Law of Data Integrity Access to information across the system boundary must be through a system process. Direct access to data bases is not (generally) allowed.

22. Ad-Hoc Reporting • Sponsors and advisors are really keen to know about meetings and sometimes they come into the office and look at the reports before they are generated. • This has led to misunderstanding, especially if unapproved minutes based on poorly-taken notes are read.

23. Ad HocReport Request 3.1 Ad Hoc Report Inform Advisor Data Store A Data Flow Diagram: Basic Laws 4 (Example) Law of Data Integrity Advisor Advisor Advisor Access to information across the system boundary must be through a system process. Direct access to data bases is not (generally) allowed.

24. 1.0 2.0 3.0 Handle Members’p Hold Meetings Produce Reports The Whole Shebang 0 Student Philosophy Club Information System Members Sponsors Advisors Appli- cants A M’Ship C Reports B Meetings