The six Clean Core dimensions
What you'll learn
Clean Core spans six dimensions — software stack, extensibility, integrations, processes, data, and operations — so it is end-to-end, not just about code.
- Six dimensions: software stack, extensibility, integrations, processes, data, operations.
- Clean code on a distorted process or poor data is still not Clean Core.
- Clean Core is end-to-end — a property of the whole solution.
Clean Core is not only about code. SAP frames it across six dimensions: software stack (keep the SAP system current and unmodified), extensibility (build any custom logic only on supported, released connection points — never inside the standard), integrations (connect systems through supported, versioned interfaces rather than hidden point-to-point links), processes (stay close to the standard way of working where you can), data (keep configuration, master, and transactional data clean and clearly owned), and operations (run the system in an observable, automatable way with no uncontrolled manual changes). SAP's customer-facing 'five guiding principles' restate the same idea minus software stack, treating a current, unmodified stack as the baseline.
The point of naming six dimensions is that 'clean' code alone does not make a clean core. A tidy piece of software running on a heavily distorted process, or feeding off poor-quality data through an undocumented link, is still not upgrade-safe. Clean Core is an end-to-end property of the whole solution.
For a stakeholder this is the key insight: when someone says a project is 'Clean Core,' it should mean attention across all six dimensions — not just that the developers wrote neat code.
Key points
- Six dimensions: software stack, extensibility, integrations, processes, data, operations.
- Clean code on a distorted process or poor data is still not Clean Core.
- Clean Core is end-to-end — a property of the whole solution.
- A genuinely 'Clean Core' project addresses all six, not just the code.
Examples
A rollout reviews the software stack (current, unmodified), extensibility (built on released points), integrations (supported interfaces), processes (kept standard), data (clean and owned), and operations (no manual drift). All six — not just the code — make it Clean Core.
Source notes: clean-core-curriculum (business synthesis)
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