A field guide to business ontologies
Ontology examples for everyday business.
Start with a business question. Explore the concepts, relationships, and source evidence behind the answer, then see what changes when the records change.
Explore four examplesOntology examples
Choose a familiar business question.
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01 / Go to market
Pipeline with
a clear definition.
Connect opportunities to accounts and campaign touchpoints. Keep recorded pipeline value separate from revenue and causal marketing impact.
The business model
- Account
- has contacts and opportunities
- Opportunity
- has a stage, value, and currency
- Campaign
- connects to an opportunity through touchpoints
Several touchpoints may refer to one opportunity. Counting the relationship is different from counting the opportunity.
Questions this model supports
Which Harbor opportunities are qualified?
Then inspect qualified USD pipeline linked to a webinar campaign, counting each opportunity once.
Typical source types CRM account and opportunity records · campaign activity logs
Loading the GTM questions and evidence…
02 / Business operations
A job needs
a capable team.
Bring jobs, teams, capacity, and approvals into one model. Check recorded constraints before a person makes an assignment.
The business model
- Job
- has requirements and recorded operating context
- Team
- has availability and capacity
- Approval
- records a review state for a job
A team can satisfy the modeled constraints without having an authorized assignment. Preserve both meanings.
Questions this model supports
Which options fit the recorded operating constraints?
See how capacity changes the team options, then inspect pending dispatch reviews separately.
Typical source types Job requests · team capacity records · approval logs
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03 / Workflows
Approved.
Still unfinished.
A workflow definition describes a process. A run records what happened. Separate dependencies, approvals, and completion to find the next question to resolve.
The business model
- Definition
- describes a workflow instantiated by a run
- Task
- belongs to a run and can have predecessors
- Approval
- records a decision associated with a task
A completed predecessor and an approved task answer different questions. Neither alone proves overall readiness.
Questions this model supports
Which pending tasks have an incomplete immediate predecessor?
Then find approved tasks that remain unfinished. Follow each answer back to the task and approval records that support it.
Typical source types Process definitions · task and run records · review decisions
Loading the workflow questions and evidence…
04 / Invoices and receivables
An invoice.
A payment.
A distinct record.
Connect customers, invoices, settled payments, and allocations. Keep a recorded balance distinct from the evidence of how a payment was applied.
The business model
- Customer
- is associated with invoices and payments
- Invoice
- has a due date, currency, balance, and dispute status
- Allocation
- connects part of a payment to an invoice
A payment can be settled without its allocation being posted. An overdue balance can also be disputed.
Questions this model supports
Which Harbor USD invoices are overdue and undisputed?
Inspect their recorded balances, then examine posted USD allocations backed by settled payments for invoice 1001.
Typical source types Billing ledger · payment records · payment allocation ledger
Loading the invoice questions and evidence…
Continue with T2K
An answer is
the starting point.
These examples show the knowledge foundation: shared definitions, source evidence, and a question you can check. T2K’s operating model adds objectives, policies, and human authority for decisions, then outcomes and evaluation for learning.
- 01
Define the things and relationships.
Name the entities, their properties, and the distinctions a useful answer must preserve.
- 02
Keep facts attached to evidence.
Source references and claim identifiers remain available alongside the selected result.
- 03
Inspect how the answer changes.
Compare the baseline with a prepared evidence change. Review the exact program and receipt.
Inspect the example bundle and runtime
The downloadable ontology packs are draft teaching material for adaptation and review. This gallery does not import or activate them in Studio. The browser displays prepared outputs generated with T2K Core; expected values are authored teaching checks, not independent quality benchmarks. Execution support applies to these supplied fixtures and declared questions; it does not validate real-world source accuracy, complete business readiness, or authority to act.
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