Suppose you were assigned to develop a logical model of the registration system at a school or college. Would you be better off to use a top-down approach, or would a bottom-up strategy be better? What would influence your decision?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The textbook points out that most analysts use a top-down model. They create the context diagram, then diagram 0, then all the child diagrams for diagram 0, and so on. Other analysts follow an alternative bottom-up strategy. With a bottom-up strategy, you first identify all functional primitives, data stores, external entities, and data flows. Then group processes with other related symbols to develop the lowest-level diagrams. Next, group those diagrams in a logical way to form the next higher level. Work up until you reach diagram 0.
There is no single answer to this question. Regardless of which strategy used, apply the suggestions and guidelines discussed in this chapter. The main objective is to ensure that your model is accurate and easy to understand.