Rules Considerations
Rules are applied to diagrams on a project-wide basis; that is, all diagrams in a particular
project must have the same rules. You must therefore be sure that the desired Rules are
selected prior to drawing the first diagram for any new project. This is true even for Visible
Analyst programs sold without data flow diagramming capability; so if you ever want to do
data flow diagramming for the project, enable rules by selecting the data flow methodology
that you would want to use at that time. You cannot go back and change your selection for a
project once the project has been created.
You can select Yourdon/DeMarco, Gane & Sarson, SSADM, or Métrica methodology for
data flow diagrams. Yourdon/Constantine methodology is used by default for all structure
charts if the structure chart diagramming mode is selected. Refer to The Visible Rules section
of this manual for detailed information about applying rules to a project.