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Subject:Re: Data Flow Diagrams From:Geoff Lane <geoff -at- gjctech -dot- co -dot- uk> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 1 Nov 2004 09:13:15 +0000
On Monday, November 1, 2004, Tony Markos wrote;
> I used to converse with a lady who was a former
> Yourdon instructor. She referred to those who
> followed "the word" as people who have the "Yourdon
> fervor." To face the dangers of DFDing that I
> referred to in a previous posting, one has to be very
> fervent about DFDing - and the Yourdon people know it.
---
Perhaps I'm missing something here. I do a little database development
occasionally. I learned the basics of Yourdon while studying for my
degree and use both that and data normalisation extensively in the
development work that I do. However, while being able to understand
DFDs that developers provide can give some insight into the internals
of an application that I'm documenting, I can't see how my producing a
DFD would help me document anything.
Surely, DFDs are development tools. They help you analyze what an
application must do and so help create the application. However, once
the application is created, any attempt to re-analyze the real-world
situation that application models is surely dangerous. You may produce
a different model. Be it better or worse than the model that the
application embodies, it is different and so incorrect with respect to
the application you're being paid to describe.
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