Enterprise Knowledge Graph
One graph of business, data, analytical and operational knowledge.
Lesson 8 of 17 · Find it on the platform map
01 What it is
What this layer does
A knowledge graph stores business, data, analytical and operational knowledge as connected nodes and relationships, so you can follow a path from an industry or process down to a metric, a dashboard, a decision and an action. SCIKIQ persists this graph and adds personas, stakeholders, systems, documents, rules, policies, lineage and record-level business events. It can be traversed through a path API, used as an agent tool, and exported to Neo4j and OWL.
02 Concepts
Four ideas to hold on to
Nodes and relationships
A graph stores things as nodes and the links between them as typed relationships. The relationships carry as much meaning as the things themselves.
Graph layers
Organising the graph in layers — industry, value chain, process, domain, entity, concept, metric, dashboard, decision, action — keeps it navigable from strategy down to operations.
Traversal
Following relationships across several hops to answer a question, such as which decisions depend on a given table. SCIKIQ exposes this through a traversal and path API.
Business events
Record-level events, such as a record being created or updated with its keys, tie the graph to what is happening now rather than only to static structure.
03 In SCIKIQ
What the layer contains
04 What good looks like
Signs it is working
- You can trace a path from a business decision to the metric, dashboard and source data behind it.
- Policies and rules are linked to the entities and systems they govern, not held in a separate document store.
- An agent can query the graph as a tool and cite the path it followed.
- The graph can be exported in a standard form, such as Neo4j or OWL, for use outside the platform.
05 Diagnostics
Questions to ask your team
- 1
If a source system fails, can we list every dashboard, decision and action that depends on it?
- 2
Which policies apply to this entity, and how would an agent know?
- 3
Is our graph kept current from events, or is it a diagram that ages?
- 4
Can we export our graph, or is our knowledge locked in one tool?
06 Keep going
Related reading
— Questions
Frequently asked
How is a knowledge graph different from a data catalogue?
A catalogue lists assets and their metadata; a graph also records how assets, processes, metrics, decisions and policies relate. That lets you answer questions that cross those boundaries.
Why include personas and stakeholders?
Knowing who uses or owns something is part of its context. It lets the graph answer who should be told, or who must approve, when something changes.
What does OWL export give us?
OWL is a standard ontology language. Exporting to it means the model can be reused by other tools rather than being tied to one platform.