As a first step to address the recently observed ultrafast dynamics in ferromagnetic metals we analyze a simple model employing two- and three-level systems. We calculate the electron dynamics of the systems for a variety of laser-pulse durations and intensities. The model is sufficiently flexible to handle the laser manipulation of population and phase dynamics on femtosecond time scales. For the three-level system, it allows us to describe the phase control of the different optical excitation paths