What is the UML analogue to the Data Flow Diagram from Structured Analysis?

uml dataflow-diagram
John R. Strohm picture John R. Strohm · Oct 10, 2011 · Viewed 38.7k times · Source

Back in the Dark Ages (mid-1980s), I used Data Flow Diagrams from Structured Analysis a fair amount, and found them very useful.

My current employer loves UML. I normally use BOUML, which doesn't do non-UML drawings.

What is the UML drawing that corresponds to the Data Flow Diagram?

If there isn't one, what is the recommended UML diagram to present the corresponding data?

Answer

sfinnie picture sfinnie · Oct 10, 2011

Probably the closest thing is the activity diagram. It's not quite the same; more influenced by flow chart than dfd. However: you can do some of the useful things in DFDs, e.g. ADs do support concurrency and differentiate control flow from dataflow.

More details on comparisons & differences in this question.

[fwiw, I still use DFDs: they're simpler and more elegant in many circumstances]

hth.

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