A system and method of modelling a communications network using a computer system is disclosed, the method including generating a network representation using computer-readable code that represents structured information; parsing the network representation; generating a network model using the parsed network representation, the network model including a plurality of network objects and relationships between the plurality of network objects; and storing the network model in memory. Any type of network may be modeled. The computer-readable code may be any suitable language or instructions for representing structured information such as, for example, extensible mark-up language (XML). A network inventory adapter receives the network representation from the network. The network inventory adapter is a software component that may be used to connect applications to the network. The network inventory adapter receives the network representation from the network and reads and parses the network representation to determine which network objects are to be operated on and the order of operation.