Diagrammatical descriptions are used extensively in understanding systems.
Typically, systems are expressed in terms of heterogeneous symbols that represent basic
characteristics of the system, including elements, connections, flows, communication, etc.
This paper introduces a new model to describe flow-based systems. It models “things that
flow,” such as information, materials, actions, and money. They are distinguished by
flowing in five states: received, processed, created, released, and communicated. The new
model is applied to typical systems to contrast them with classical descriptions.
Keywords: flow model, system modeling, conceptual modeling