Information flow diagram

Examples of media include word of mouth, radio, email, etc.

The return paths can be two-way or bi-directional: information can flow back and forth.

An IFD usually uses "blobs" to decompose the system and sub-systems into elemental parts.

[citation needed] IFDs are often confused with data flow diagrams (DFDs).

[3]: 180 Peter Checkland, a British management scientist, described information flows between the different elements that compose various systems.

The sources and targets of information flow are one of the following: actor, use case, node, artefact, class, component, port, property, interface, package, activity node, activity partition, or instance specification.

[citation needed] A dashed line with an open arrow pointing away from the source to the target is used to represent information flow.

Examples of diagramming software include Microsoft Visio for Windows or OmniGraffle for OS X.