1. G041: Lecture 05 Information Flow Diagrams
Mr C Johnston
ICT Teacher

2. Session Objectives
Know the need to document information flows within an organisation,
Know the components which make a good information flow diagram,
Understand the steps required to draw an information flow diagram.

3. Information Flow
An information flow diagram is a useful way of showing how information moves into and out of an organisation and between individuals or departments within it,
To draw a diagram we need to discover who needs or uses what information and then draw some links. Example diagrams could include:
Customer Orders, Purchase Orders to Suppliers, Design and Production Drawings, Wages and Tax-Paid Details, Records of Staff Training, Names and Addresses of Employees, Stock Details, Invoices Paid, Monthly Income, Monthly Outgoing, Web Publicity Pages, Monthly Profit or Loss.

4. Communication Methods
Information within an organisation can be broadcasted in number of different ways:
Telephone and Voice Mail,
Post (internal/external)
(internal/external),
Memo,
Letter,
Meeting,
Reports,
Purchase Order,
Two Way Radio,
Face to Face,
Central Database (MIS),
Invoice,
Appointment,
EDI and E-Commerce,
Fax,
Internet / Intranet,
Mobile Phone (verbal and sms).

5. Establishing Flows
To draw information flow diagrams you will need to interpret a written description of the information movement during a situation,
This could be done by highlighting different words within the case study paragraph in different colours / styles – I use
Bold for senders / receivers'
Italic for the information being sent
Underline for the method

6. Drawing Information Flow Diagrams
Mark up the case study paragraph showing the sender / receiver, information and method,
Put the names of senders and receivers of information in boxes around a page,
Draw arrows between the sender and receiver for each type of information (arrow head show direction of flow),
Rearrange the boxes on the diagram so that flows don’t cross,
Label each arrow with the information flow and the method used to communicate it.

7. Example Flow Diagram
Draw an information flow diagram based on the following passage:
A customer posts an order to the sales department, the order details are entered into a centralised database which is accessed by the warehouse to makeup the order. A delivery note is attached to the goods and handed to the despatch department for delivery. On delivery, the member of the despatch department hands the goods and delivery note to the customer. The sales department creates an invoice that is posted to the customer. The accounts department assesses a copy of the invoice from the centralised database. The customer posts payment to the accounts department.

8. Customer Accounts Department Warehouse Dispatch Sales
Customer Order - post (exteral)
Invoices - post (external)
Order Details - centralised database
Order Details
- Centralised
Database
Delivery Note
- hand (face-to-face)
Payment - post (external)
Delivery Note
- hand (face-to-face)

9. Drawing Information Flow Diagrams
You can draw organisational structures using:
Pen and paper,
The standard drawing tools in any office application,
“Marks were most often lost because of the candidates’ inability to manipulate text boxes so that the labelling of the information flows was ambiguous. Candidates may find it easier to label the flows unambiguously if they hand write the labels on the arrows.”
Maggie Banks (Principle Examiner G041) Reports on the Units June 2007
Therefore ensure that all flows are clearly labelled and its clear which label belongs to which flow.
Each flow and its label could be a different colour
A key is allowed as long as diagram and key on same page.

10. WARNING……Labels on diagrams
Many students throughout the country lost marks last year but not labelling diagrams in the correct way…
“marks were lost when candidates described processes on the arrows, such as ‘the Membership Manager detaches the direct debit mandate and hands it to the Finance Clerk’, rather than identifying the information and method, i.e. ‘direct debit mandate by hand’.”
Maggie Banks (Principle Examiner G041) Reports on the Units June 2007

11. direct debit mandate - hand
Membership
Manager
Finance
Clerk
the Membership Manager detaches the direct debit mandate and hands it to the Finance Clerk
Membership
Manager
Finance
Clerk
direct debit mandate - hand

12. Exercise
Download informationFlowExercises.doc from my website and complete the exercises.
Try and use a computer to present your answers as they look much neater.