The CORA Model

Introduction
In many organizations there is a friction between “Central IT” – in charge of the big legacy systems, ERP and data stores - and “de-central” business units who want to have flexible and easy–to-use solutions. Capgemini recognized this paradox and states that this has to do with the dynamics of different application lifecycles. To explain this the modes of transport are used as a metaphor.

The TRAIN is a stable, robust mode of mass transportation. It is not flexible but reaches its goal in a predictable, straightforward way. The functionality is provided in a highly efficient and standardized way.

The BUS is a relatively stable mode of mass transportation, but clearly with more flexibility. A bus still needs a road, but a flexible route can be more easily configured out of roads than out of available railways.

The CAR is a much more agile, individualized means of transport. There are many different types of cars to choose from and their owners will configure and adapt them to reflect their individual, differentiated styles and personalities.

The SCOOTER is a lightweight, extremely flexible and individual method of transport. There are many different types of scooters and they can only transport one or two people at the same time.

All of these modes of transport are tied together through a HUB, best seen as a modern train station with carefully provided additional services. Such a hub is truly multi-modal in that trains, buses, cars and scooters all can conveniently “dock” and people can easily change their means of transport, while benefiting from a host of add-on services.

 

CORA Mapping
How these application lifecycles co-exist in an IT landscape can be easily visualized by using the CORA model.

Assessing the results
Two layers are always used, regardless of the application lifecycle node of transport: the data itself and the way it is presented. Differences occur on the channel access layer and the composition/application layer.

Cars and scooters tend to use thin clients, due to their relative simplicity. Trains and buses will have to rely on thick clients because of the compex business functionality they regularely to expose.

The train and bus applications are positioned in the stable application layer. The cars and scooters are mapped onto the agile business-oriented composition layer. This means that cars and scooter applications by default are developed through re-use of existing processes and/or data, thus being able to have a time-to-market the business needs!

To make this re-use happen in a controllable way, both layers are connected through the hub. This hub unlocks the full enterprise potential of the centralized application services and information in a standardized way. This way the HUB delivers the required flexibility, but also has to enforce integration regarding Security & Compliance (i.e. Identity Management), and IT Governance (i.e. Lifecycle Management). Especially these last two topics require further investigation in how to align them with the four different transport nodes. In a next blog post this will be discussed.