A tool of systems analysts, utilized in order to help conceptualize existing information flows and other sequences and to visualize the impacts of projected changes.
The flow graph of a societal system is a representation of its processes, their directionality, and the multilateral pattern of relationships within a system. It depicts the course of institutional interactions Each of the variables in the flow graph receives or emits a number of information links to other variables. For a given variable, the number and types of links to it signify its relative importance in the system, those with the largest number being the most important from a control and constraint point of view, those with a maximum number being the most salient. The picture or society that emerges from the flow graph elucidates the nature of society as complex system.