Systems Analysis and Modeling Techniques

For Case 2, you begin by thinking through the Student Registration System at Trident University to identify all external data sources (students, instructors, and student records, and be creative with more) and destinations as level “0” diagram. During that process, you identify the entities, the name and content of the data flows, and the direction of the data flows. If you do that carefully, you will do a good job of fact-finding and should have no difficulty drawing the context diagram.
Draw an FDD of the portal system website for Trident University. Your FDD must consist of 3 levels. Write your assumptions, if any.
Draw a context diagram and a diagram 0 DFD that represents the registration system at your school or an imaginary school.
Next, you draw a Level 1 DFD exploding the students’ record external entity (agent) and decompose it into processes, data stores, and data flows, using the symbols in Figure 2-10.
To help you answer Case question #2, keep in mind that the first step in constructing a set of DFDs is to draw a context diagram with the following DFD symbols to represent external entities, processes, data stores, and data flow directions as shown in Figure 2-10.

Figure 2-10 [DFD Symbols]. (n.d.)
Ask yourself: How do you know which entities and data flows to place in the context diagram?
Recommended Software 
Module 2 involves hands-on exercises requiring a modeling tool. You will need modeling software for diagram development. The only way to achieve quality and clarity on drawing is to learn diagram notations. You cannot use Microsoft Office drawing tools and expect to draw a sound diagram. Analysis and design “notation shapes” is the language to communicate in logical design. For this reason, it is strongly suggested to acquire any diagram editor software that will serve this purpose. If you do not have Visio, use yEd modeling software by yWorks. It is completely free, and it has all of the functionality needed for this class. The software is excellent and easy to use. You do not need to sign up or provide your email. You can also test drive the application by clicking on the “Launch” button before install it. The download link is http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yEd_about.html . The following site provides is a demo of yEd functionality.
yWorks. (2011). yEd graph editor in 90 seconds. yWorks. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmSTwKw7dX4
Also, here is an open source alternative to Visio called Dia Diagram Editor at http://dia-installer.de/ 
Additionally, you can use any software of choice as long as you can copy/paste the diagrams into MS Word for uploading. If you want something for free, use yEd. It is safe and works on major platforms such as Windows, Unix/Linux, and Mac OS X.
Instructions to Copy yEd Diagrams in MS Word
You need a few steps to convert a diagram into a bmp file and insert it in MS Word. You will be creating two files.
In the yEd window, name the file and save it to a directory. Next, you will do an “export” as .png, bmp, or gif format. Name the file and save it in the directory for this class in your computer.
In the MS Word document, look for the Insert tab, and do “insert Picture from File” locating the diagram. The yEd image will be display in the document.
Your paper will be evaluated on the following criteria:
Diagram pictures and analysis to the questions must be written in 2-3 pages in MS Word, excluding cover and reference pages. Logical FDD and DFD should be copied from yEd or other design software and pasted in Word.