Day-0 gives us the enterprise. Phase 10 makes tomorrow happen.
At Day-0, Metrolane already contains a believable company.
Customers exist. Orders exist. Documents exist.
Source systems, canonical data, lineage and scenarios exist.
Phase 10 asks a different question:
What should happen next — and how do we make it happen without breaking the enterprise rules that already exist?
Phase 10 is not:
It is a runtime that repeatedly decides:
- what business activity should occur?
- when should it occur?
- which real business objects does it affect?
- which system acts?
- which approved command runs?
- what downstream work becomes due?
- when do extraction and projection catch up?
- what should remain intentionally delayed?
- can the same run be replayed?
The runtime path
- 01Day-0 Reference Estate
- 02Runtime Estate
- 03Enterprise Clock
- 04OccurrencePlan
- 05Activity Binding
- 06ExecutionPlan
- 07Business-Time Queue
- 08Commands / Handlers
- 09Relays
- 10Connector Extraction
- 11Canonical Projection
- 12Grounding Visibility
- 13Replay / Verification
This looks like a long chain.
Each layer has one job.
Reference estate vs runtime estate
Day-0 remains the frozen reference.
Phase 10 works on a mutable runtime copy.
derive
This gives us:
- RESET
- → return to a known Day-0-derived starting point
- CONTINUE
- → keep the current runtime state and move forward
OccurrencePlan — What should happen?
Before executing work, decide the expected business activity. For example:
This is an occurrence plan. It describes what is due to happen.
Activity Binding — To which actual records?
The plan may know execute CRM lead-to-order but still need to resolve: which account? which opportunity? which item? which actor? which business key?
Some of those records may only exist after an earlier business-time point commits. So binding happens when enough prior state exists.
ExecutionPlan — What exactly will we invoke?
Once the concrete records and actions are known, the runtime records the exact work to execute. Conceptually:
This is what makes later replay possible.
Completed handoff vs lag
Completed handoff
handoff
Day-0 lag
expected
Together they show:
Phase 10 later decides when and whether downstream work should progress.
Business-time queue
The runtime can be understood simply as an ordered queue of business-time points.
Example:
- 14:00close CRM opportunityCRM
- 15:00run CRM → ERP handoffCRM → ERP
- 18:00extract changed source dataConnector
- 18:30project canonical updatesCanonical
Each committed time point can leave behind a real intermediate enterprise state.
Commands and handlers still own business rules
The simulator does not become a privileged database writer.
It calls the same business actions used by the rest of the system.
Conceptually:
That means the simulator does not create a second version of the company with different mutation rules.
Scenario suppression
Sometimes work can be valid and discoverable — but should still remain delayed.
Important distinction:
This allows Phase 10 to preserve deliberate scenario lags even when the underlying integration path is otherwise healthy.
Connector and projection cadence
A source system can know something before the canonical layer does.
- 15:00 ERP Sales Order exists
- 18:00 connector extracts it
- 18:30 canonical projection creates/updates enterprise representation
So source truth can be ahead of canonical visibility. That is intentional.
The grounding layer should not silently bypass the canonical boundary just because a source record exists earlier.
Replay
A deterministic simulator should be able to repeat a known run from a known starting state.
Replay should use:
rather than re-running planning and hoping it chooses the same records. That makes differences meaningful.
What “proper business-process simulation” means
The goal is not raw transaction volume.
The goal is causal enterprise depth.
Examples include:
- Lead → Opportunity → Sales Order → Delivery → Invoice
- Purchase requirement → Purchase Order → Receipt → Supplier Invoice
- Production Order → MES work → Production Receipt
- E-commerce Order → ERP fulfilment
- Warranty Claim → decision → replacement / credit
- Shipment → delivery → receiving / downstream state
A smaller number of coherent business processes is more useful than millions of unrelated rows.
One business day
Business time7 points · illustrative
- 09:00CRM work startsCRM
- 11:00Opportunity progressesCRM
- 14:00Opportunity closes WONCRM
- 15:00CRM → ERP relay creates Sales OrderCRM → ERP
- 18:00Connector extractionConnector
- 18:30Canonical projectionCanonical
- laterGrounding sees canonical Sales OrderGrounding
This one timeline demonstrates:
The Guide explains this architecture now.
The Day-0 Explorer still does not expose:
Those belong to the runtime experience, not the frozen Day-0 Explorer.
Chapter takeaway
- Day-0 gives Metrolane a reproducible enterprise state.
- Phase 10 creates a mutable runtime from it.
- The enterprise clock controls simulated business time.
- Plans decide what should happen.
- Binding resolves real business objects.
- Handlers perform controlled mutations.
- Relays move business facts between systems.
- Connectors and projection let enterprise knowledge catch up.
- Replay proves the run can be repeated.