Executive Summary¶
The GenAI Reality Check¶
You have decades of legacy systems. Thousands of databases. Millions of documents. Data in every shape, format, and quality level imaginable. Completely siloed. Only your human experts---your SMEs---truly understand how to use this data in the right context, with the right caveats, for the right decisions.
Now you want GenAI agents to bypass those humans and work directly with all your legacy systems and data?
Really? You believe in magic?
The Hard Truth¶
GenAI without context is a liability. It hallucinates. It confidently presents nonsense as fact. It has no understanding of your business rules, your regulatory constraints, your data quality issues, or the tribal knowledge locked in your experts' heads.
Letting GenAI loose on your enterprise without proper grounding is not innovation. It's negligence.
The Enterprise Knowledge Graph¶
An EKG is a virtual semantic and operational layer, composed on demand at query and execution time, that governs access to trusted facts and data products across all internal and relevant external systems.
It keeps GenAI grounded in context for secure, high-quality decisions.
The EKG doesn't replace your legacy systems. It connects them. It provides the semantic layer that gives meaning to your data, the governance layer that ensures trust, and the operational layer that makes it all work at enterprise scale.
Why Maturity Matters¶
You can't just "install" an EKG. Building one requires organizational readiness across multiple dimensions:
- Business: Strategy alignment, executive sponsorship, clear use cases
- Organization: Skills, culture, governance structures, operating models
- Data: Quality, lineage, semantics, master data management
- Technology: Architecture, infrastructure, integration capabilities
The EKG Maturity Model provides the industry-standard framework for assessing and developing these capabilities. It establishes clear criteria for measuring progress across five levels of maturity, helping you understand where you are, where you need to be, and what it takes to get there.
What This Model Covers¶
The EKG Maturity Model defines the capabilities required for an EKG and the generic capabilities in any organization that are affected by EKG adoption.
Each capability area provides:
- A business summary explaining why it matters
- The added value from semantic standards
- Scoring criteria based on five maturity levels
- Practical questions stakeholders need answered
From Silos to Use Cases¶
Traditional IT builds a new silo for every new requirement. EKG inverts this. Rather than building independent applications, you build use cases in the EKG. Each use case becomes a logical component that shares data, semantics, and governance with every other use case.
The Use Case Tree methodology breaks down strategic objectives into implementable components. For each component, you can assess whether your organization has the maturity to deliver it---and what capabilities need development if it doesn't.
Get Started¶
The EKG Maturity Model is developed by the Enterprise Knowledge Graph Forum (EKGF), a Managed Community of the Object Management Group (OMG).
Explore the four pillars---Business, Organization, Data, and Technology---to assess your organization's readiness for EKG and GenAI at enterprise scale.