The key concepts of the data flow diagram are the following. In addition to PowerDesigner's standard palette, a Data Flow Diagram tool palette is available to let you rapidly create objects specific to the diagram type:
|
Concept |
Tool |
Gane & Sarson |
Yourdon |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Process |
|
 |
 |
Location where data is transformed. See Process. |
|
Flow |
|
 |
|
Oriented link between objects, which conveys data. See Flow. |
|
Data store |
|
 |
 |
Repository of data. See Data store. |
|
External entity |
|
 |
|
Source or destination of data. See External entity. |
|
Split/Merge |
|
 |
|
Splits a flow into several flows or merges flows from different sources into one flow. See Split/merge. |