CHAPTER 3
SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT AND DOCUMENTATION TECHNIQUES
SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
3.1 Identify the DFD elements in the following narrative: A customer purchases a few
items from a local grocery store. Jill, a salesclerk, enters the transaction in the cash
register and takes the customer’s money. At closing, Jill gives both the cash and the
register tape to her manager.
3.2 Do you agree with the following statement: “Any one of the systems documentation
procedures can be used to adequately document a given system”? Explain.
It is usually not sufficient to use just one documentation tool. Every tool documents a uniquely
3.3 Compare the guidelines for preparing flowcharts, BPDs, and DFDs. What general
design principles and limitations are common to all 3 documentation techniques?
Similar design concepts include the following:
• All three methods require an initial understanding of the system before actual documentation
3.4 Your classmate asks you to explain flowcharting conventions using real-world examples.
Draw each of the major flowchart symbols from memory, placing them into one of four
categories: input/output, processing, storage, and flow and miscellaneous. For each symbol,
SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO THE PROBLEMS
3.1 Prepare flowcharting segments for each of the following operations:
a. processing transactions stored on a sequential medium such as a magnetic tape
to update a master file stored on magnetic tape
b. processing transactions stored on magnetic tape to update a database
c. querying a database and printing the query result
Trans
3.1 (continued) Assorted Flowcharting Segments
d. using a terminal to enter paper-based source document data and send it to a
remote location where a corporate computer updates the company database.
e. using a terminal to query your customer sales database
f. a scheduled automatic backup of a database to an external hard drive
3.1 (continued) Assorted Flowcharting Segments
g. use a terminal to enter employee hours recorded on time cards to update both
the payroll transaction file and the wage data in the payroll master file
Payroll
3.1 (continued) Assorted Flowcharting Segments
h. use a terminal to access a price list in the sales database to complete a purchase
order. An electronic copy of the purchase order is sent to the vendor and a
backup copy is printed and filed by vendor name
i. make an airline reservation online from your home computer
Customer Airline
3.2 a. Prepare a system flowchart of the process described.