SADM 5/ed – CASE STUDY 3 – Milestone 7: Application Architecture
Page: 7-1
MILESTONE 7 – APPLICATION ARCHITECTURE
 Synopsis
J
ust as we modeled business requirements during systems analysis, we should
model technology architecture and requirements during systems design. The
models serve as blueprints for system design, prototyping and construction.
In this milestone you will prepare a Physical Data Flow Diagram. Physical data
flow diagrams model the technical and human design decisions to be implemented as
part of an information system. They communicate technical and other design
constraints to those who will actually implement the system—in other words, they
serve as a technical blueprint for the implementation.
 Objectives
After completing this milestone, you should be able to:
 Draw physical data flow diagrams for an information system’s architecture and
processes.
 Prerequisites
Before starting this milestone the following topics should be covered:
1. Systems design – Chapter 10
2. Application architecture and physical DFDs – Chapter 11
Prepared by Gary B. Randolph for
Systems Analysis & Design Methods 5ed
by J. L. Whitten, L. D. Bentley, & K. C. Dittman
Copyright Irwin/McGraw-Hill 2001
SADM 5/ed – CASE STUDY 3 – Milestone 7: Application Architecture
Page: 7-2
 Assignment
The goal of this project is to produce a high-level general design that can serve as an
application architecture for the system and a general design for the processes that
make up the system.
 Activities
1. Prepare the physical DFD based on the narrative provided in Exhibit 7.1. Make
assumptions where necessary.
Deliverable format and software to be used are according to your instructor’s
specifications. Deliverables should be neatly packaged in a binder, separated with a
tab divider labeled “Milestone 7” and accompanied with a Milestone Evaluation
Sheet.
References:
Export Production Information Narrative
Exhibit 7.1
Templates
See online learning center web site for the textbook.
Deliverables:
Physical Data Flow Diagram:
Milestone’s Point Value:
Prepared by Gary B. Randolph for
Systems Analysis & Design Methods 5ed
by J. L. Whitten, L. D. Bentley, & K. C. Dittman
Due: __/__/__
Time:_______
_______
Copyright Irwin/McGraw-Hill 2001
SADM 5/ed – CASE STUDY 3 – Milestone 7: Application Architecture
Page: 7-3
Exhibit 7.1
Export Production Information Narrative
A small Visual Basic program to handle the web export will be written and loaded
on a particular client PC on the network that is left running around the clock. The
operating system’s Task Scheduler will be set up to launch the Visual Basic
program automatically every twelve hours at 7 am and 7 pm by the system clock.
The Visual Basic program will send an SQL statement to the SQL Server database
that serves as a back-end for the Sales and Book Tracking System, reading data on
books in-process from the following tables: tblAuthors, tblBooks, tblTasks,
tblTaskWork. Taking that resulting recordset, the program will first delete the
existing data and then write the recordset data to a StatusInfo table in a Microsoft
Access database residing on the web server computer. It can delete and insert
using SQL Statements.
It is possible that the web table will be in use just as the procedure is attempting to
write the data. That would generate an error. The Visual Basic program will trap
for that error, stay running, and attempt to update the data every two minutes until
it is successful.
Prepared by Gary B. Randolph for
Systems Analysis & Design Methods 5ed
by J. L. Whitten, L. D. Bentley, & K. C. Dittman
Copyright Irwin/McGraw-Hill 2001