Graphics for a presentation explaining the technical bits of an Data Governance program initiative called Enterprise Level Metadata System (ELMS).

I likened the outcome three capital funding phases to a grove of trees, growing naturally from a group of individual seedlings into an integrated ecosystem of complex value.

The word "seedlings" was a polite way of saying the platform services were built from scratch on hardware pirated from abandoned cubicles around the office.

The Data Governance initiative had several complex problems to solve all at once; hence five separate platform services.

In the first phase, the services would look rather small. But well-rooted, they would be able to survive budgetary droughts, and more solid, they would be able to outgrow competing initiatives . . .

As the services matured and meshed, their combined utility would buffer its individuals from the winds of change . . .

And finally, with greater capacity to collect resources and manage complexity, the group would fully mature into a monetizable ecosystem . . .