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The Five Maturity Levels

This document will refer---for each capability---to the five maturity levels.

Level 1

  • The domain of internal PoCs, pilots or---ideally---"Lighthouse Projects".
  • The focus is usually on specific targeted baseline use cases constructed using isolated ontologies.
  • The champions are visionaries who have assembled a specialist team for implementation---possibly the start of the "EKG Center of Excellence".
  • Funding is likely to be project-based and designed to demonstrate capabilities.

Business

  • Stakeholders recognize business opportunities in scaling and amplifying capabilities through EKG use cases.
  • The first internal champion is seeking to socialize strategic use cases, supports innovation, and is willing to take on the disruption challenge.

Organization

  • Champions are internal visionaries who have assembled a specialist team for implementation.
  • The pilot is sanctioned and funded.
  • Knowledge acceleration is being addressed.
  • Overall organizational support is emerging.

Data

  • Core data management capabilities are being performed such as inventory, data architecture, vocabularies, business glossary or terminology, or pipeline management.
  • Specific use cases are being implemented with specialist teams for the pilot initiative.

Technology

  • Technology strategy is focused on experimentation and innovation.
  • Manual data transformation and targeted ETL is underway for the pilot.
  • Limited infrastructure and dedicated efforts to build initial knowledge graph components.

Level 2

  • The domain of parallel knowledge graph activities, implementing multiple (related) use cases on the same platform.
  • The organization is creating reusable architecture---i.e. "the EKG platform" (EKG/Platform)---based on EKG principles.
  • The "EKG Center of Excellence" (CoE) is created.
  • Funding is likely to be at the LOB level and starts to (partly) come from BAU budgets.

Business

  • Stakeholders adopt a “knowledge-centric” mindset in their tactics to strengthen focus on strategic business value.
  • Management elevates the knowledge graph as an organizational and funding priority.

Organization

  • An operating model of collaboration is implemented to support the knowledge graph.
  • The Center of Excellence and DataOps environment is initiated.
  • Budget and implementation strategy are based on agile and synchronized with the use case tree methodology.

Data

  • Critical data elements are prioritized in the ontology.
  • Approach to identity and meaning resolution is established.
  • Use case trees are defined and modeled to capture shared data relationships.
  • The knowledge graph is becoming the central point for integration.

Technology

  • Reusable architecture based on EKG Principles
  • Core software development design approaches are being established and incorporated into strategy.
  • CTO focuses on extending pilot initiatives for additional leverage.

Level 3

  • The establishment of a secure, scalable and resilient EKG/Platform for business-critical strategic use cases.
  • Resources for the design and build of operational systems are defined and coordinated.
  • The knowledge graph is now really an Enterprise Knowledge Graph (EKG) that serves as the semantic data mesh for the organization.
  • Ownership, governance, and funding are managed at the enterprise level and coordinated by the EKG Center of Excellence that oversees the full life-cycle of use cases from inception to deployment and beyond.
  • Long-term "operate \& optimize" processes are in place.

Business

  • Strong collaboration between various business and support units to prioritize strategic business cases.

Organization

  • The EKG is recognized as a core service for the enterprise.
  • Enterprise-wide ownership and funding processes are operational.
  • The EKG Center of Excellence is a stand-alone \gls{bau} department.

Data

  • Inventory is embedded into the EKG and linked to governance.
  • Data is expressed as formal ontologies, onboarded into the EKG and searchable.
  • Data flows are defined and modeled.
  • The EKG is the authoritative source for data.

Technology

  • Commitment to the EKG as the strategic infrastructure for the organization.
  • Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), DevOps/GitOps and full continuous deployment are adopted and implemented.
  • Cloud architecture defined for elasticity.
  • Data point level entitlement enforcement processes are implemented.

Level 4

  • The EKG is understood as strategic infrastructure---as an operational utility---for the organization and the authoritative source for most data (except for data that originates from core legacy systems).
  • It supports structural application rationalization that can take over many tasks from humans and process automation.
  • Strategic funding is based on the vision of executive management and fully embraced by the Board of Directors.
  • All core data management capabilities have been achieved.

Level 5

  • The EKG is central to systems and business processes.
  • It has been fully integrated into both internal operations and external supply chain partners.
  • Workflows and approval steps are fully automated.
  • Entitlements and access rights are controlled by the EKG.
  • Inference and reasoning capabilities are used for advanced AI use cases.

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