ZORBA Industry Editions¶

Overview¶

ZORBA is not a one-size-fits-all framework. While the core architecture, 12 domains, agentic patterns, and governance model are universal, the way an organisation instantiates these elements varies profoundly by industry. A technology services company managing ServiceNow implementations inhabits a fundamentally different operational reality from a hospital managing clinical pathways or a manufacturer managing production lines.

Industry Editions are ZORBA's answer to this reality. They are curated, opinionated compositions of the core framework — pre-configured for a specific vertical. Not a fork. Not a separate product. An instantiation template that accelerates adoption by providing industry-relevant defaults, taxonomies, processes, and workforce composition guidance.

Every edition builds on ZORBA Core. Every edition is compatible with Core. And every edition can be customised further to suit a specific organisation.

The Edition Model¶

ZORBA Core¶

ZORBA Core is the universal, industry-agnostic foundation:

The six-layer architecture (Strategy → Work) as defined in the Framework Architecture
The 12 enterprise domains and their L2 capabilities as defined in the Domain Reference Model
The Blended Workforce Model — agent types, collaboration patterns, trust levels (see 03-workforce-model.md)
The Agentic Enterprise Patterns library (see 05-agentic-patterns.md)
The Governance & Trust Framework (see 06-governance.md)
The Information Model — business object graph, node types, edge types (see 07-information-model.md)
The meta-model — how domains, capabilities, processes, activities, and work instances relate

Core is complete on its own. An organisation can adopt ZORBA Core without any industry edition and build their own configuration. But most will benefit from starting with an edition that reflects their operational context.

Industry Editions¶

An Industry Edition is a curated composition that pre-configures ZORBA Core for a specific vertical. It answers the question: "Given what we know about this industry, what does a well-architected blended workforce look like?"

Editions are:

Opinionated but not prescriptive — They recommend; they do not mandate
Additive, not subtractive — They extend Core; they sometimes remove from it
Independently versioned — An edition may release updates on its own cadence, provided it remains compatible with the Core version it targets
Composable — Organisations operating across industries (e.g., a healthcare technology company) can draw from multiple editions

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        ZORBA Core                               │
│  6-layer architecture · 12 domains · meta-model · governance    │
│  agentic patterns · information model · glossary                │
├──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┤
│ Tech     │ Health-  │ Financial│ Manufac- │ Profess- │ Retail & │
│ Service  │ care     │ Services │ turing   │ ional    │ Consumer │
│ Providers│          │          │          │ Services │          │
└──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘

What an Industry Edition Contains¶

Each Industry Edition customises the following eight dimensions of ZORBA Core:

1. Domain Emphasis¶

Not all 12 domains carry equal weight in every industry. An edition defines which domains are primary (core to the industry's value chain), secondary (important but supporting), and foundational (necessary but not differentiating).

Dimension	Technology Service Providers	Healthcare	Manufacturing
Primary	Operations & Delivery, Technology & Data, Customer Success	Operations & Delivery, Risk/Legal/Compliance, People & Talent	Operations & Delivery, Supply Chain, Product & Innovation
Secondary	Sales, Strategy & Governance, People & Talent	Technology & Data, Product & Innovation, Finance	Technology & Data, Finance, Quality (within Operations)
Foundational	Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain, Corporate Services	Marketing, Sales, Corporate Services, Supply Chain	Sales, Marketing, People & Talent, Corporate Services

2. Extended Domain Taxonomy¶

Core defines L2 capabilities for each domain. Editions extend these with industry-specific L2 and L3 capabilities that reflect the operational vocabulary and structure of the vertical.

Example — Operations & Delivery:

Level	ZORBA Core	Tech Service Providers	Healthcare
L2	Production / Service Delivery	Service Delivery Management	Clinical Service Delivery
L3	—	Incident Management	Patient Triage & Assessment
L3	—	Change Management	Clinical Pathway Management
L3	—	Problem Management	Treatment Administration
L3	—	Release Management	Discharge Planning
L2	Quality Management & Assurance	Service Quality & SLA Management	Clinical Quality & Patient Safety
L3	—	SLA Monitoring & Reporting	Adverse Event Management
L3	—	Customer Satisfaction Measurement	Clinical Audit

3. Reference Processes¶

Editions pre-map industry-standard processes onto ZORBA's six-layer architecture, complete with workforce composition markers (as defined in the Framework Architecture).

Technology Service Providers: ITIL-aligned service processes, project delivery lifecycles, practice management workflows
Healthcare: Patient admission-to-discharge pathways, clinical decision flows, regulatory reporting processes
Financial Services: Trade lifecycle, KYC/AML processes, regulatory reporting workflows
Manufacturing: Production planning, quality inspection, supply chain fulfilment processes

4. Agentic Maturity Profiles¶

While Core defines agentic maturity at the domain level (see Domain Reference Model), editions refine this to industry-specific activities — identifying which activities are most ready for agent participation in the context of that particular vertical.

Activity Area	Tech Services Readiness	Healthcare Readiness	Manufacturing Readiness
Incident triage & classification	●●●●●	●●●○○	●●●●○
Document generation	●●●●●	●●●●●	●●●●○
Scheduling & resource allocation	●●●●○	●●●●●	●●●●●
Diagnostic/analytical decisions	●●●○○	●●○○○	●●●●○
Regulatory compliance monitoring	●●●●○	●●●●●	●●●●●
Customer/patient interaction	●●●○○	●●○○○	●●○○○

5. Workforce Composition Templates¶

Recommended human/agent splits by domain for the industry, expressed using ZORBA's composition notation (H, H+a, H=A, h+A, A):

Domain	Tech Services	Healthcare	Financial Services
Strategy & Governance	H+a	H+a	H+a
Operations & Delivery	H=A	H+a	h+A
Technology & Data	h+A	H=A	h+A
Customer Success & Service	H=A	H+a	H=A
People & Talent	H+a	H+a	H+a
Finance	h+A	h+A	H=A
Risk, Legal & Compliance	H+a	H+a	H=A

6. Compliance & Governance Overlays¶

Industry-specific regulatory requirements that extend ZORBA's Governance & Trust Framework:

Industry	Key Regulatory Frameworks	Agent-Specific Implications
Technology Service Providers	SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, industry-specific client requirements	Agent access controls, data handling policies, audit trail requirements for client data
Healthcare	HIPAA, FDA (where applicable), clinical governance standards	Strict limits on agent autonomy in clinical decisions, patient data handling, consent management
Financial Services	Basel III/IV, MiFID II, SOX, AML/KYC regulations	Agent decision audit trails for regulated activities, model risk management, explainability requirements
Manufacturing	ISO 9001, industry safety standards, environmental regulations	Agent authority limits for safety-critical operations, quality record integrity
Retail & Consumer	PCI DSS, consumer protection, GDPR/CCPA	Agent handling of payment data, personalisation within privacy bounds

7. Metrics Library¶

Industry-standard KPIs pre-mapped to ZORBA domains and layers:

Technology Service Providers: SLA attainment, mean time to resolution (MTTR), utilisation rate, customer satisfaction (CSAT), net promoter score (NPS), backlog velocity, revenue per consultant
Healthcare: Patient wait times, readmission rates, bed occupancy, clinical outcome measures, staff-to-patient ratios, regulatory compliance scores
Financial Services: Cost-to-income ratio, trade settlement rates, regulatory capital ratios, customer lifetime value, fraud detection rates

8. Agent Role Catalogue¶

Recommended AI agent roles specific to the industry, extending the agent types defined in the Blended Workforce Model:

Example — Technology Service Providers:

Agent Role	Domain	Primary Function	Autonomy Level
Incident Triage Agent	Operations & Delivery	Classify, prioritise, and route incoming incidents	A3–A4
Change Risk Assessor	Operations & Delivery	Evaluate change requests against risk criteria and historical patterns	A2–A3
Knowledge Curator	Customer Success & Service	Generate, maintain, and recommend knowledge articles	A3
Resource Scheduler	People & Talent / Operations	Optimise consultant allocation across engagements	A3
SLA Monitor	Customer Success & Service	Continuously monitor service levels and alert on breach risk	A4
Customer Health Analyst	Customer Success & Service	Score customer health and recommend intervention actions	A3
Proposal Drafter	Sales	Generate proposal documents from templates, requirements, and historical data	A2–A3
Platform Monitor	Technology & Data	Monitor ServiceNow instances and recommend optimisations	A3–A4

Edition Lifecycle¶

Versioning¶

Each edition carries its own version number alongside the Core version it targets:

ZORBA Core v1.2
└── ZORBA for Enterprise Software v1.0 (targets Core v1.x)
└── ZORBA for Healthcare v0.9-beta (targets Core v1.x)

Editions follow semantic versioning. A major Core version change may require edition updates; minor Core changes are backwards-compatible.

Adoption Path¶

┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐
│  1. Assess   │───▶│  2. Adopt    │───▶│  3. Customise│───▶│  4. Evolve   │
│              │    │   Edition    │    │              │    │              │
│ Evaluate fit │    │ Deploy the   │    │ Tailor to    │    │ Contribute   │
│ of edition   │    │ edition as   │    │ organisation │    │ back, track  │
│ to org       │    │ starting     │    │ specifics    │    │ Core updates │
│              │    │ point        │    │              │    │              │
└──────────────┘    └──────────────┘    └──────────────┘    └──────────────┘

Assess — Evaluate which edition best fits the organisation's industry and operating model. Organisations spanning multiple industries may adopt a primary edition and draw capabilities from others.
Adopt — Deploy the edition as the baseline configuration. This provides immediate structure: domain emphasis, taxonomy, reference processes, and workforce composition templates.
Customise — Tailor the edition to the specific organisation. Adjust domain weights, extend the taxonomy, modify workforce composition targets, and add organisation-specific processes.
Evolve — Continuously refine as the organisation matures. Contribute improvements back to the community edition. Track Core and edition updates for compatibility.

Community Contributions¶

Industry Editions benefit from community input:

Taxonomy extensions — Industry practitioners contribute L3 and L4 capability definitions
Reference processes — Organisations share proven process patterns (anonymised)
Agent role definitions — New agent roles validated in production
Metrics — Industry-specific KPIs and benchmarks
Compliance overlays — Regulatory expertise from domain specialists

Contributions follow a review process to maintain quality and coherence with Core.

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