Exam 5: Task Level Modeling

In data flow diagrams, circles are used to represent processes that take data inflows and transform them to information outflows.

In a system flowchart, which symbol should be used to represent a paycheck sent to an employee?

System flowcharts include symbols, flow lines, and areas of responsibility.

Compare and contrast the use of system (document) flowcharts versus data flow diagrams. What is the purpose of each? How are they similar? How are they different?

In the following flowchart segment, the most appropriate description to place in Symbol A is

You have been asked to document the payroll processing for Jarah Corporation. The system has been explained to you as follows. Each employee records hours worked on a "time track" report and turns it in to his or her supervisor. At the end of each pay period, supervisors authorize all time track reports and send them to Payroll where a clerk enters the time data into a payroll ledger and then files the time track report by date. Near the end of each pay period, the Personnel department sends documents summarizing any payroll changes, such as newly hired or terminated employees and increases in pay rates. A payroll clerk enters this information into the payroll ledger and files the documents by employee number. The payroll clerk uses the payroll ledger to prepare paychecks for each employee. These paychecks are mailed to employees. The payroll clerk prepares a summary payroll report that is sent to management and a federal withholding report that is mailed to the appropriate government agency. Required (a) Prepare a system flowchart to represent Jarah Corporation's system. (b) Prepare a context level data flow diagram to represent Jarah Corporation's system.

Read the following narrative description. Compare the narrative with the data flow diagram on the next page. Identify errors in the data flow diagram. You will receive points for each error correctly identified; however, you will be penalized for any errors incorrectly identified (i.e. items you identify as errors that are not actually errors). Be VERY specific about what each error is. Toy Wholesaler, Inc. (TWI) purchases toys from various toy manufacturers and resells the toys to local retail shops. TWI's supervisors have given you the following information with regard to part of its information system. At TWI, for purposes of this data flow diagram, the Acquisition/Payment System consists of Purchasing, Accounts Payable, and Accounting. A purchase requisition is sent from the inventory system and is received by Tom Piper, a clerk in the Purchasing department. Tom prepares a purchase order from information in the vendor and inventory files and mails it to the vendor. The vendor returns a vendor acknowledgement to Tom indicating the receipt of the purchase order. Tom then sends a purchase order notification to Mary Contrary, a clerk in the Accounts Payable department. When the Receiving department accepts vendor goods, the inventory system sends Mary a receiving report to notify him that the goods have been received. Mary also receives the invoices that are mailed in by the various vendors. Mary matches the invoices with the purchase order notification and the receiving report and updates the accounts payable master file. Mary then sends a payment authorization to the Accounting department. In the Accounting department Willie Winkie prepares and mails a check to the vendor. When the check is issued, the system automatically updates the accounts payable master file and the general ledger. Context Level Data Flow Diagram List the errors you identified in TWI's data flow diagrams.

Data in master files are used to update the balance in the transaction files.

An audio-cassette tape is an example of a _______ storage device.

Matching -Which symbol represents "computer process"?

Which of the following is an input/output symbol used in system flowcharting?

Draw a context-level data flow diagram to represent Example University's Registrar's office system according to the following description. Students of Example University request courses via an automated telephone line. Registrar's office employees use the student records file, the course descriptions file, and the course registration file to identify whether students have met the pre-requisite and major requirements for each course they have requested and to determine whether there are seats available. The result of these processes is a set of student schedules. These are forwarded to the University Cashier's office to compare against the students' accounts receivable to make sure they have no outstanding fees due. This fee status information is returned to the Registrar's office and they either send a denial notice or an approved student schedule to each student.

Matching -Which symbol represents "on-page connector"?

A company has a customer master file with customer number as the primary key. It is stored in numeric order on magnetic tape. How should the daily sales transaction file (which is stored numerically by invoice number on a disk) be sorted (if at all) before it is used to update the customer master file? Why?

Explain batch processing, online processing, real-time processing, and report-time processing, including the similarities and differences between them.

Which of the following is not an accurately stated convention for data flow diagramming?

Draw a flowchart segment to represent magnetic tape input being used to update a master file stored on disk.

In a system flowchart, which symbol should be used to represent a customer master file that can be accessed directly (as opposed to sequentially)?

Only one acceptable input symbol exists for use in system flowcharts.

The data flow diagram level that shows the scope of the system being represented is