04 04 2013 Chapter 4 Process Documentation an accountant Preparing and using process documentation is an important skill for Data flow diagrams portray a business process activities stores of data and flows of data among those elements System flowcharts present a comprehensive picture of the management operations information systems and process controls embodied in business processes Data flow Diagram A graphical representation of a system that depicts o The systems components o The data flows among the components o The sources destinations and storage of data Use a limited number of symbols Do NOT depict management or operational elements of a system Context Diagram top level or at least a detailed diagram of a system depicting the system and al its activities as a single bubble and showing the data flows into and out of the system and into and out of the external entities o External Entities those entities Ex People places or things OUTSIDE the system that send data to or receive data from the system Physical Data Flow Diagram graphical representation of a system showing the systems internal and external entities and the flows of data into and out of these entities accomplished Specified where how and by whom a systems processes are Does not specify what is being accomplished Portrays a sytems infrastructure Internal Entity an entity within the system that transforms data Logical Data Flow Diagram DFD a graphical representation of a system showing the system s processes as bubbles data stores and the flows of data into and out of the processes and data stores Specifies WHAT activities the system is performing DOES NOT how where or by whom Portrays a systems activities Balanced DFDs When the external data flows of two or more DFDs are equivalent Systems Flowchart a graphical representation of a business process including information processes as well as the related organizations processes Preparing a Data Flow Diagram Analyze Narrative o Circle each box activity o Place box on entities that perform activities Activity and action being performed by an internal or external entity o Action related to data EX sending data transforming data filing data o Operations process activities include picking up goods in a warehouse inspecting goods at a receiving dock and counting cash DFD Guidelines Include WITHIN the system context bubble an entity that performs one or more information processing activities Include only NORMAL processing routines o NOT exception routines or error routines on context diagrams Include in the process documentation all and only activities and entities described in the system narrative When multiple entities operate identically depict only one to For clarification draw a data flow for each flow into and out of a data represent it all store o Label each flow with the activity number that gives rise to the flow or with a description of the flow If a data store is logically necessary because of a delay between processes include a data store in the diagrams weather or not it is mentioned in the narrative Group Activities if they occur in the same place and at the same Group activities if they occur at the same time but in different time places Group activities if they seem to be logically related To make it readable use between 5 7 bubbles A data flow should go to n operations entity square when only operations process functions are performed by that entity A data flow should enter an entity bubbly if the operations process entity is to perform an information processing activity On a physical DFD reading computer data stores and writing to computer base stores must go through a computer bubble On a logical DFD data flows cannot go from higher to lower numbered bubbles Documenting Abnormal Processing Process called exception routines or error routines handle required actions for out of the ordinary exceptional or erroneous events data o Processing performed in other then normal situations should be documented below the level 0 DFD with reject stubs that indicate that exceptional processing must be performed Reject Sub data flow assigned that label Reject which leaves the bubble and does not go into any other bubble or data store Shown only in lower level diagrams Preparing Systems Flowcharts 1 Divide the flowchart into columns o One column for each internal entity and one for each external entity o Label each column 2 Flowchart columns should be laid out so that the flowchart activities flow from the left to the right o Minimize crossed lines and connectors 3 Flowchart logic should flow from top to bottom and from left to right o Put arrows on ALL flow lines for clarity 4 Keep the flowchart on once page o When multiple pages use off page connectors 5 Within each column there must be at least one manual process keying operation or data store between documents o Do NOT directly connect documents within the same column 6 When crossing organizational lines going from one column to another show a document at both ends of the flow line unless the connection is so short that the intent is unambiguous 7 Documents or reports printed in a computer facility should be shown in that facilities column first o You can then show the document or report going to the destination unity 8 Documents or reports printed by a centralized computer facility on equipment located in another organizational unit should be shown with in the computer facility 9 Processing within an organizational unit on devices such as a PC laptop or computerized cash register should be shown within the unit or as separate column next to that unit but NOT in the central computer facility column 10 Sequential Processing steps with no delay in between them an resulting from the same input can be shown as one processes or as a sequence of processes o processing steps can be computerized or manual 11 The only way to get data into or out of a computer data storage unit is through a computer processing rectangle or offline processes square document document 12 Manual process is to needed to show the sending of a o Sending should be apparent from the movement of the 13 Do not use manual processes to file documents o Show the documents going into the files Documenting Enterprise Systems Moving from a file based system to an enterprise database changes the systems flowchart o An enterprise database replaced transactions and master data o Other flows may change depending on the system implementation Chapter 10 04 04 2013