Expert: Mehmet Orun - 3/30/2009

Question
Hi Stephen here,
               I would greatly appreciate it if you could look through the following question for me and point out any errors I have. I have identified what I think the external entities, processes and data stores are. So if you can find any errors or give any advice please do.

Thanks.....

http://dataflowdiagrams.blogspot.com/

Answer
Hello There,

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you.

Here are some general observations (vs. a comprehensive answer) as I do not know the true goal of your activity.

In terms of highlighting items that could be an activity or a data store, you seem to have done a good job.  There are other potential data stores however that are implicit in the description.  Two examples are: list of venues that contain information on venue type, location, capacity etc.  Another is how and where information about letters containing information about the venue is kept, as well as when the letters were sent out to the associated parties.  The two rules of thumb in trying to gather your data sources are: what information am I looking for and would they be in a common location?  Am I trying to save/store any information for a future use.  If the answer is yes to either of these, then there is an associated data store.

By external entity, do you mean organization or people or entity in the ER sense?  If organizations or people you have: organizer, teams, media, associated people with different roles under all of these, such as players, referee, management personnel.

Cheers and good luck.