I’m learning about software engineering and design right now, and after reading some books and articles, there’s still some things that I don’t really get. Mainly, like the title says, suppose we have finished design our database (with ER Diagram as the output), and then we proceed to draw a DFD for the system. Then, we’re supposed to do a structure chart diagram, based on the DFD we created.
After that, how do we turn the DFD (and structure chart) into code? I have googled it with no luck, and all of the books and articles I read talks only about drawing the DFD, and do not spend even a page explaining how all of those diagrams turn into code.
I have seen the tools to turn UML into code, and while I’ve just only saw UML a bit, I kinda understand how UML can be turned into code. But DFD is just feels strange. For example, if there’s some duplicated process in two bubbles, should we code twice?
Please note that I’m just asking for direction, not a full blown answer. I’m pretty sure that a full answer will be a book and not possibly answered here. So maybe some direction, articles, books, or something to read?
Thanks before.
You are right in feeling strange about code generation from DFD. Data Flow Diagrams focus in the description of the data flow in the system, but does not describe the process implementation. You have the data specification, but don’t know what to do with it. Therefore, it is impossible to generate a system from a DFD. What you can get at most is a system mockup – a method for each bubble and the signatures of the methods. Even from a code source is hard to get a DFD, as you can see here. You can look in the field of Model-driven Engineering for further information about using models to build systems.