> [!cite] Definitions > In this essay I use the term "*systems modeling*" in the broadest sense: any attempt to represent a system, process, or structure using diagrams, notation, or formal languages. Systems modeling exists in a spectrum. ![[Systems Modeling Exists on a Spectrum 2026-04-17 10.07.54.excalidraw.svg]] %%[[Systems Modeling Exists on a Spectrum 2026-04-17 10.07.54.excalidraw.md|🖋 Edit in Excalidraw]]%% By "systems models", I mean really any representation of a system, process, or structure using a graphical notation, diagram, or formal structured language. Systems models then would loosely cover things that tell you facts I would posit the vast majority of real world use cases (outside of specific large systems engineering and rare code generation contexts) of modeling is done for **communication**. Yet we so often use to tools that were designed with niche syntaxes whose semantics are unintuitive. ==BPMN LITTLE DASH MARK== Diagrams and modeling are all about encoding information. The difference between pure diagramming and modeling is the implication that the information may exist outside of a particular representation. Or that the same single piece of information may be viewed in different forms. Audience Size Rigor