The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

data flow analysis

    A process to discover the dependencies between
   different data items manipulated by a program.  The order of
   execution in a data driven language is determined solely by
   the data dependencies.  For example, given the equations

   	1. X = A + B
   	2. B = 2 + 2
   	3. A = 3 + 4

   a data-flow analysis would find that 2 and 3 must be evaluated
   before 1.  Since there are no data dependencies between 2 and
   3, they may be evaluated in any order, including in parallel.

   This technique is implemented in hardware in some
   pipelined processors with multiple functional units.  It
   allows instructions to be executed as soon as their inputs are
   available, independent of the original program order.

   (1996-05-13)