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Start with a slice.

The only question that matters at the start is whether this works on your estate. A slice answers it. Take one business capability, run it on Cobra, prove its rules, and measure what it shares with everything else. Then decide.

What a slice is

One business capability, chosen from the map.

A slice is one business capability, such as billing, with its programs and its data. It is chosen from the estate map, which shows where the system actually divides, and not from a workshop.

What you get

The slice, running

The programs of one business capability, unchanged, running on Cobra against a copy of your data.
What you get

Its rules, proved

A decision table for each program: one row per rule, its source lines beside it, and a test that runs the real program.
What you get

Its data, measured

The records the slice owns, and the records it shares with the rest of the estate, each one named.
What you get

What the tests found

Any defect the tests expose, recorded with its line, its cause and a proposed fix. Yours to act on.
The data is sliced too

The code divides. The data usually does not.

A slice includes its part of the data model. That is the part most plans leave until last, so we measure it first.

Where an estate divides
Where an estate divides: the code divides, the data does notThree panels. First, programs group cleanly into capabilities. Second, the same capabilities against record types: some records are written by more than one capability. Third, one slice lifted out: the records it owns move with it, and the shared records are kept in step by replication.1. The code dividesBillingits own programsClaimsits own programsPolicyits own programs2. The data does notBillingClaimsPolicyR1R2R3R4R5R6shared recordRecords written by more than onecapability cannot simply move with one.3. A slice takes what it ownsBilling slice, on CobraR1R2R3owned: movedshared: a copyreplicationClaims and Policy, stayingR3R4R5R6The code divides. The data does not, so the data is sliced where it can be and replicated where it cannot.
Read this diagram as text
  1. The code divides. Programs group cleanly into business capabilities such as billing, claims and policy.
  2. The data does not. Some record types are written by more than one capability. On one measured estate, 123 of 198 record types are written by two capabilities or more.
  3. So the data is sliced where it can be, and replicated where it cannot. A slice takes the records it owns. Records it shares with capabilities that stay behind are kept in step by data replication tooling.

Where the estate map shows that a capability owns its records, those records move with it. Where records are shared with capabilities that stay behind, they are kept in step by data replication tooling, such as IBM’s Change Data Capture.

The second case is the harder one, and we say so. The estate map tells you which case applies to each record before work starts, so the cost of the data cut is known when you choose the slice, and not discovered afterwards.

In both cases the data keeps the same form, because the software that reads it is the same. Shared data is copied, not reshaped for new code. Later, if you want to remove the sharing, the Cobra architecture can offer each business transaction as a service, so other parts of the business ask for the data and do not read it directly.

How it stays safe

Three patterns your architects already know.

Nothing here is new as an idea. What Cobra adds is the evidence that tells you where each pattern applies.

Pattern

Finding the seam

A seam is a place where a system can be divided without changing what it does. The estate map reports, for every capability, what moves with it, what it must cut and what it must ask another capability for. The seam is chosen from that evidence.
Sam Newman, Monolith to Microservices
Pattern

Strangler fig

The new arrangement grows around the old one and takes over one step at a time. The slice runs beside the rest of the system; when it is proved it takes over its part, and the original stays available until you retire it.
Martin Fowler, Strangler Fig Application
Pattern

Branch by abstraction

Put one layer between the programs and the thing you intend to change, then change what sits behind it. In the systems Cobra runs, data access already goes through one layer, so the store behind it can change without touching the programs.
Martin Fowler, Branch By Abstraction
Three sizes

Pick the smallest one that answers your question.

90 minutes

A session on a sample of your code

We run the platform against a sample of your own system and show you what comes out. Virtual or on-site.
Fixed scope

Program family scan

One program family: a decision table for each program, the seed data each row needs, and a proposed fix for each defect found.
Fixed price · 6–10 weeks

Validation sprint

One business capability proved end to end on your own assets, against success criteria agreed before it starts.
Engagement ladder
The six Cobra delivery models, the decision, and the two journeysEvery engagement starts with Cobra Discovery. Its findings inform a decision: move off the legacy platform, or stay and improve it. A client that moves goes on to Cobra Intelligence, a Validation Sprint and Cobra Migration. A client that stays goes on to Cobra Modernisation. Both journeys end in Cobra Sustain.1 · Cobra DiscoveryUnderstand the estate and the risk · 2–8 weeksDecide the directionMove, or stay and improve. Decided from the evidence.MoveStay and improve2 · Cobra IntelligenceThe rule and logic evidence pack · 6–10 weeks4 · Cobra Validation SprintProve the target path on your assets · 6–10 weeks5 · Cobra MigrationMove the estate off the legacy platform.In one cutover or in stages · 6–18 months3 · Cobra ModernisationImprove the estate without leaving the platform:in place, engineering practice, integration,knowledge · 3–12 months, or ongoing6 · Cobra SustainKeep the modernised estate honest.Ongoingthenor move laterModernisation is a valid destination in its own right. It also reduces the risk of a later move.
Read this diagram as text
  1. Cobra Discovery is the entry point for any estate: understand the estate and the risk. Two to eight weeks, fixed scope.
  2. Decide the direction. With the findings in hand, decide or confirm the strategy: move off the legacy platform, or stay and improve it. A client can stay now and move later.
  3. A client that moves continues to Cobra Intelligence (the rule and logic evidence pack, six to ten weeks), then a Cobra Validation Sprint (prove the target path on your own assets, six to ten weeks, fixed price), then Cobra Migration (six to eighteen months, in one cutover or in stages).
  4. A client that stays continues to Cobra Modernisation: improve the estate without leaving the platform. Three to twelve months, or ongoing.
  5. Both journeys end in Cobra Sustain, which keeps the modernised estate honest.
See it worked through, step by step
What happens next

Bring one business capability.

Tell us which process you would choose and why. We will show you what the estate map says about it and what a slice would prove.

Talk to us about a sliceHow it works