Data Flow Diagram Template
Efficiently model processes and map data flows with the Data Flow Diagram. Improve internal processes and better lead development teams.
About the Data Flow Diagram (DFD) Template
With the Data Flow Diagram Template, improve your understanding of the inputs, outputs, and processes involved in a system. A data flow diagram (DFD) is a helpful tool to visualize four components of a system: the process, the data store, the entities, and the data flows. A data flow diagram is a good preliminary step to creating an overview of any complex process with multiple informational components, and helps to better understand internal processes and flows.
What is a data flow diagram?
Data flow diagrams are visual representations that show the components that relate various parts of a data or information system together. Organizations use them to visually depict the flow of data and system requirements in an entire system. DFDs are useful in many business activities, especially in mapping the data necessary for a process to run. This includes:
Notation styles
Physical requirements
System automation
Who uses data flow diagrams?
For growth teams, data analysts, and product teams that want to think about system design, creating a data flow diagram is a useful way to see all the required components needed for a system to run.
A data flow diagram template makes it easy to map out all the informational inputs in a system, so this can be visually pieced together and analyzed.
Here is how different teams can make use of the data flow diagram template:
Growth Teams
Growth teams need to use data and understand data flows to find new growth opportunities.
DFD diagrams help them better organize and understand how data is being tracked, what influences, and what pushes and pulls are in the system.
Data Analysts
No surprise here: data analysts are responsible for mining data and finding insights, so the structure and system requirements of data flows are critical for these analysts.
Product Teams
Product teams are tasked with understanding how customers interact with a product, including how their data is inputted and where it goes.
Product teams often use DFDs to trace where information flows from when the customer enters it.
Data flow diagram levels
Data flow diagrams are typically broken into different levels, with complexity increasing at each level.
Here’s a brief overview of the different DFD levels:
Level 0
This is the simplest type of DFD diagram and depicts a single process node and the various ways that it connects to external entities (e.g. the customer). This level doesn’t include much detail, but is much simpler to create and can still provide helpful insights on business processes.
Level 1
Level 1 DFDs provide more detail: like Level 0, they include one process node, but Level 1 DFDs break this node down into sub-processes, which incorporate more data flows.
Level 2
This is the most detailed level of DFD and involves breaking processes into even more detailed subprocesses and depicting the relation of these processes to external entities via a context diagram. You can use Miro's context diagram template for this.
How do I create a data flow diagram?
Start by selecting Miro’s ready-made Data Flow Diagram template and edit it as you see fit. First, choose the data system you want to map. Next, identify the internal and external actors and the steps needed to complete actions inside your diagram. You can build your data flow diagram with shapes, which will visually show the steps or actors of your system, and use the connector lines with arrows to show the flow of your system.
Get started with this template right now.
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