I’m currently working with Visio to create Data Flow Diagrams for a System Analysis and Design class but I’m unsure what the difference between ------ and ------> is. I can connect 2 shapes together with a line (process, entity, data store) but does the single line connecting the two mean data flow? Do I need to explicitly use the data flow arrow to show which way data is flowing?
(There doesn’t seem to be tags for this topic, maybe im in the wrong place?)
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A single line is not part of Data Flow Diagramming standard symbols. An Arrow is. Visio is a drawing tool, it does not enforce the diagramming standards.
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A line without an arrow (usually a dashed line) is a trust boundary and is usually drawn over and perpendicular to one or more arrowed lines. For example, it may indicate that entities on one side are on a web page and ones on the other are on the server. This is not a part of the traditional data flow diagrams but is used in threat modelling. See the STRIDE Approach MSDN article for examples.
A line with an arrow shows data flow from one entity to another in the direction indicated by the arrow.
yes,single line having arrow connecting the two enties is data flow
arrow is used for show data flow between two entities & only line but two lines in parallel is used for indicating data stores
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