An empirical investigation of the task specific relative strengths of selected accounting and information systems diagramming techniques
The creation of a properly descriptive information systems model is essential to system development. In turn, the choice of a diagramming technique is critical to the success of the model building effort. This begs the question of diagramming efficacy. Does diagramming work well as a systems modeling tool? If so, which techniques are best? This paper provides an empirical basis for answering these questions. The investigation described in the paper consists of an examination of the degree of task specific relative strength among various techniques consisting of Data Flow Diagrams (DFD), Process Maps (PM), Flowcharts (FC), Resources, Events, and Agents Diagram (READ), and Unified Modeling Language Activity Diagram (UMLAD). Experimental results indicated that UMLAD was superior in process analysis when compared to other techniques, the READ technique was superior in database modeling when compared to other techniques, and DFD was superior in data analysis when compared to other techniques.
information systems modeling dfd process maps resources, events, and agent diagramming uml process modeling visual modeling