Which of the following best describes a context diagram?

  Which of the following best describes a context diagram?

a. A flowchart that shows the relationship of an accounting information system to its

environment.

b. A data flow diagram that does not include any processes.

c. A data flow diagram that cannot be decomposed further.

d. A data flow diagram that shows the highest level view of an information system.

Answer: d. A data flow diagram that shows the highest level view of an information system.

A context diagram is a top-level data flow. It pictures the whole information system as one process and indicates all major inputs to, and outputs from it.

A context diagram is the top level data flow diagram that cannot be broken any further down and it shows a view of system as an entity. It defines the extent and edge of overall information system.

Flowcharts, however, depict relations between systems; they do not supply as detailed a mapping of data flows.

But unlike other data flow diagrams, which can be decomposed into further lower level details of the sub-diagram, a context diagram sits atop provisioning an abridged high order view about system boundary and primary sets of input/output .

In general, a context diagram provides the overall picture of an information system by defining it as one single process with its main data flows. It gives a broad outlook of the scalability before functional details are depicted through de-composition.