Avoid "boiling the ocean"¶

Provide focus, clarity, deliver business value fast, do the right things at the right time. Save money.

One of the most important goals for creating the Use Case Tree Method was—and still is—to tackle a phenomenon we see in almost every knowledge graph initiative: people trying to boil the ocean.

The Silo Instinct¶

It's human nature to simplify by drawing boundaries. That instinct drives the creation of silos—neat boxes around problems that feel manageable.

But with an Enterprise Knowledge Graph, the promise is different: everything connects, all information lives in one logical place, and applications become "use cases" working against a shared foundation. Suddenly the boundaries blur.

Where do you begin? What do you do when?

Everyone Does What They Like¶

Without clear guidance, people default to what they enjoy:

Ontologists start modeling the entire universe
Architects dive into database technology and performance debates
Data engineers build pipelines for data nobody asked for yet
Developers prototype features that aren't on any roadmap

All of these activities are eventually necessary—but not all from day one. Don't lose sight of the forest for the trees.

Focus is Everything¶

In an EKG context, focus becomes more critical than ever:

Manage expectations ruthlessly
Don't waste time on things that aren't important yet
Keep the eye on the ball: deliver real business value to real end-users, continuously

The Use Case Tree prevents boiling the ocean by defining agreed scope at the right level of detail—without getting technical prematurely.

Strip Out the Noise¶

People have a habit of dragging in irrelevant topics:

Database schema design
Page layouts and screen mockups
API specifications
Technology stack debates
"How we've always done it"

Or they can't escape their current world—only thinking in terms of what already exists, proposing minor improvements to the status quo. Thinking out of the box is rare. Most people aren't empowered to do it, and those who are often don't know where to start.

The Use Case Tree method strips all of this out. No databases. No screens. No technology. Just crystal clear focus on actual business requirements, in almost plain English:

Outcomes - What value are we delivering?
Stories - Who needs what and why?
Concepts - What things are we talking about?
Workflows - How does work actually flow?
A name - What do we call this use case?

That's it. And that's already hard enough.

The Why and What Before the How¶

First focus on "the why and the what"—what business value are we delivering and to whom?

Then—and only then—progressively add specialists who contribute their detailed knowledge to each use case until it ships. At higher levels of maturity, these structured details enable increasing automation of software development itself—moving toward executable models where traditional programming becomes unnecessary (low-code/no-code delivery).

Crank Out Use Cases¶

The Use Case Tree gives the CoE the focus to deliver use cases one by one, following a roadmap aligned with business strategy.

Each delivered use case:

Proves value to stakeholders
Builds reusable components for the next use case
Accelerates future delivery through positive learning
Maintains momentum and credibility

The alternative—trying to build everything at once—leads to projects that run for years, burn through budgets, and deliver nothing until "it's all done" (which it never is).