Chapter 5 Flowcharting Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Outline Objectives Flowchart types Design issues Symbols Uses in the AIS Risk / control matrix Example 5-2

Objectives When you finish this chapter, you should be able to: –List and discuss the purpose and use of various flowchart types –Explain the basic parts of and design considerations common to all types of flowcharts –Identify and describe common symbols and IT tools used in flowcharting –Discuss ways flowcharts impact the design, implementation and evaluation of the AIS –Create a risk / control matrix –Create and interpret systems and document flowcharts 5-3

Flowchart types System flowcharts “Big picture” look at an information system Program flowcharts Logic of a computer program Document flowcharts Trace documents through an information system Hardware flowcharts Show relationship between hardware elements 5-4

Design issues Top to bottom, left to right Iterative nature of flowcharting White space Title Columns depict areas of responsibility Clear origin, termination and progress for documents Discussion of rough drafts with others 5-5

Symbols The universe of flowcharting symbols is practically endless. You can find examples in most software programs—particularly in programs designed for flowcharting. A few examples follow, but they are by no means exhaustive. 5-6

Uses in the AIS Understanding how a system works Making suggestions for system improvement Spotting internal control deficiencies Developing procedures manuals 5-7

Why Documentation Is Important? Seven Reasons –Depicting how the system works –Training users –Designing new systems –Controlling system development and maintenance costs –Standardizing communications with others –Auditing AIS –Documenting business processes

Symbols Process Decision Document Multiple documents 5-9

Symbols Terminator Manual operation Connector File 5-10

11 Standard Flowchart Symbols

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13 Enter document into computer via keyboard, edit input, record input

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15 User queries the computer Update sequential data store

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17 Preparation and later manual reconciliation of control totals

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19 Key and key verify inputs

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21 Enter document into computer using a scanner

Entity Relationship (ER) Diagram A documentation technique to represent the relationship between entities in a system. Information generated often used when building a database from scratch Entities can be: –resources (cash, securities, inventory) –events (sales orders, purchases, release of raw materials into the production) –agents (customers, vendors, production workers)

Entity Relationship Symbols Entities represented by rectangles Relationship between any two entities is represented by a diamond symbol that connects them and indicates the nature of the relationship Cardinality is often shown

Cardinality represents the numerical mapping between entities in the database: –one-to-one (each consultant has only one skill i.e. taxation) –one-to-many (a specific consultant works on several projects at the same time) –many-to-many (several consultants are assigned to work on multiple projects at the same time)

Sales- person Company Car Customer Several Orders VendorsEntire Inventory Assigned Places Supply EntityRelationshipEntity 1 M M M 1 1 Cardinalities

ORDER CUSTOMER SALE INVENTORY made to received from line item M M M M MM M fills

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