Leveraging the Pega Common Application / Common Data Model

Unlocking Application Agility: A Guide to the Pega Common Data Model 

In a recent User Experience Expert Circle event, a panel of Pega experts gathered to provide a deep dive into the Pega Common Application, which includes the Pega Common Data Model (CDM) and reusable components. This framework is designed to fast-track development, ensure architectural consistency, and lower the total cost of ownership. 

If you missed the live session, we’ve distilled the essential takeaways to guide your journey. 

What is the Pega Common Data Model? 

At its core, the Pega Common Data Model is a pre-built, enterprise-grade CRM data model that provides a solid foundation for your applications. It’s not just a collection of data objects; it's a comprehensive framework that includes: 

• An Industry-Specific Data Model: Centered around core entities like  Account  (the customer), Contact (the people), and Service Account (products, policies, or contracts), the model is extended for various industries, providing a relevant starting point. 

• Best-Practice Patterns: It incorporates proven, performance-tested "cookie-cutter" solutions for common challenges, including data retrieval, CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations, external integrations, and reference data management. 

• Development Accelerators: The framework is packed with tools and utilities, from data loaders and test cases to a complete Data Portal, designed to reduce manual effort and jumpstart your build. 

Practical Implementation: How to Adopt Pega Common Data Model 

A key theme of the session was providing clear, actionable advice on how to implement the Common Application. The approach depends on your starting point and complexity. 

Extending the Model: Ruleset vs. Class Specialization 

Once you decide to use CDM, the next crucial decision is how to extend it. The experts outlined two primary methods: 

1. Ruleset Specialization (Lightweight Extension): 

• What it is: You use the out-of-the-box CDM classes as-is and simply add new properties within your application's ruleset. 

• When to use it: Ideal for simpler applications, projects that primarily integrate with external systems of record, or when you want to keep your application layer light and get started quickly. 

2. Class Specialization (Robust Extension): 

• What it is: You inherit from the base CDM classes to create new, specialized classes within your application layer (e.g., creating MyCo-Data-Contact from Pega-LDM-Entity-Contact). 

• When to use it: Best for complex applications where you need to define specific security models, access controls, or plan to store and manage a significant amount of data directly within Pega. 

A Real-World Success Story: The Data Lifecycle in Action 

Aditi Mehta from Pega's Professional Services team shared a compelling experience from a healthcare client, illustrating how the Common Data Model supports the entire data lifecycle and transforms the development process. 

• Design & Govern: The Common Data Model simplifies architecture by providing pre-configured data pages, relationships, and sample data. This allows teams to build and demo workflows immediately, even before back-end integrations are complete, providing clarity to business stakeholders early and often. 

• Integration: With detailed data dictionaries and entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs), CDM provides a foundational blueprint for integration discussions. This kickstarts the design process and reduces overall development time. 

• Migration & Ingestion: The framework includes a suite of tools to handle data, from Excel templates and a Data Import Wizard for test data to pre-configured file listeners and data flows for ingesting large volumes of production data. 

By providing this structure, the Common Data Model stack relieves architects and developers from the heavy lifting of data model design, allowing them to focus on high-value business logic. 

The Developer's Toolkit: Patterns and Utilities 

The session also showcased the powerful tools and reusable patterns that make the Common Data Model so effective. 

• Data and Integration Designer: Available on the Pega Marketplace, this tool uses a guided case workflow to automate the process of extending the model. It allows you to add new entities, define properties, create many-to-many relationships, and configure REST integrations, all while enforcing Pega's best practices. 

• The Data Portal & Common Assistant: This portal allows developers and business users to experience the data model firsthand. You can visualize entities and their relationships, while the new GenAI-powered Common Assistant can answer questions and provide guidance on how to map your use cases. 

• Robust Design Patterns: Developers can leverage a powerful reference data framework for managing picklists, a dual data page pattern (one for CRUD, one for lists) for consistent data operations, and a cross-entity search pattern for complex queries. 

Your Path Forward 

The Pega Common Data Model is an essential toolkit for any team building on the Pega strategic applications, and optional pega platform. By adopting its data models, standard patterns, and powerful utilities, you can significantly accelerate your development, improve application quality, and ensure your architecture is ready for the future. 

To learn more, we highly encourage you to explore the resources on the UX Expert Circle and dive deeper into the topics discussed. 

Don't Miss Out – Listen to the Playback!

This blog post only scratches the surface of the valuable information shared in the webinar. For a detailed demonstration of the tool in action, deeper explanations of the modernization strategies, and answers to pressing questions (including nuances for Customer Service applications leveraging Process Fabric), we encourage you to listen to the full webinar playback. 

• Webinar: https://community.pega.com/event/leveraging-pega-common-application-common-data-model
• Event Q&A: https://community.pega.com/conversations/user-experience/q%26amp%3Ba-from-leveraging-the-pega-common-application-/-common-data-model

Stay tuned to the UX Expert Circle for more insights and future events!