Documentation / Operating model
Ecosystem anatomy
Distinguish business domains, groupings, products and execution.
Purpose
Hives and beekeeping give us a language for cooperation, local responsibility and care for the whole. It is an organisational metaphor: people, decision rights and data products remain explicit.
Ecosystem / Shared purpose
The boundary of collaboration: objectives, participating domains, common policies and accountable governance. Start with a use case and a named sponsor.
Typical evidence: Policy, decision log, value indicator.
Hive / Business domain
A domain with an accountable owner, its own meaning and priorities. It coordinates its Cells while respecting the ecosystem’s minimum rules.
Typical evidence: Domain charter, owner, glossary.
Cell / Business subdomain
A focused subdomain inside a Hive. Stewardship and engineering work close to the data. A Cell can own several data products; the Cell is not itself a product.
Typical evidence: Steward, quality rules, product inventory.
Comb / Business grouping
An optional grouping of Cells within the same Hive. A Cell may belong to several Combs. This is a business and permission grouping, not an extra infrastructure layer.
Typical evidence: Grouping criteria, scoped responsibilities.
Data product / An accountable offering
A purposeful offering with a named owner, versioned contract, known consumers, quality expectations and a lifecycle. Tables, APIs and dashboards can be delivery interfaces.
Typical evidence: Contract, tests, access record, usage.
Farm / Execution environment
Where products are cultivated and operated: production, test or development environments. The Farm is an execution boundary, distinct from business ownership.
Typical evidence: Inventory, access controls, recovery evidence.
Scope and limitations
The metaphor helps explain the model. It does not replace an organisation’s terminology or assign human roles based on bee biology.
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Original KDV Framework knowledge. Working community edition 0.1. CC BY 4.0. References retain their owners’ rights; no official assessment or certification is implied.