Can someone explain if the context diagrams(as used in requirements engineering) have cardinalities(as defined in UML diagrams)?What I want to ask is, are cardinalities part of a context diagram's syntax?
Do context diagrams have cardinalities?
diagrams;model;modelling
Most of the system analysis methods have in common the idea that a system has boundaries with the environment that surrounds it and with which it interacts.  The term context diagram is used to represent this initial high level view, before decomposing the system and the flows into its (more detailed) parts.  Modeling methods such as IDEF0 (formerly SADT), or DFD (e.g. Yourdon's or Gane's & Sarson'ts) and others used to have such level 0 charts. As these context diagrams are the start of the analysis, cardinality is generally not yet known, and generally not usefull at this level.  And anyway, functional analysis diagramology such as IDEF0 don't even know cardinality.  In UML there's no formal context diagram defined. There are several type of diagrams which could represent the system in its context, but the most suitable and which also shows the full context is the top level use case diagram, which shows the system under consideration and the actors/systems in the environments with which the system interacts.  On such a high level diagram there would be no cardinality.  I would therefore suggest NO as answer to this question.   