Information flows exchange business data between applications. For each information flow, one application is considered the source of the information flow and the other application is considered the target of the information flow. The information flows transfer the business data that applications either create, read, update, or delete (CRUD).

The number of information flows that an application is associated with helps the application architect determine the complexity of the application, potential redundancies among applications, and the effort involved in migrating or replacing an application.