DEVOPSdigest

Compuware announced new zAdviser analytics that enable application development and delivery teams to make data-driven decisions that improve mainframe software quality, velocity and efficiency, as well as ISPW enhancements and Git integration that modernize mainframe code pipelines.

Advanced analytics come from leveraging ISPW, the leading mainframe Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) solution along with zAdviser, a free service for Compuware customers that leverages machine learning to continuously improve mainframe software development and delivery outcomes. Customers can now marry their rich ISPW usage data with software delivery KPI data from zAdviser to understand how their teams work and where future resources can be applied most effectively.

Through zAdviser dashboards, teams can visualize constraints in changing source code and focus their development efforts to better meet business and customer requirements, answering questions such as:

- What modules are contributing most to our technical debt?

- Where do we need to focus our code revitalizing and refactoring efforts?

- Where are the constraints that, if improved, could have the biggest positive impact on improving future flow?

More insightful developer productivity data helps teams answer questions such as:

- How much time is spent developing and testing code?

- How long does production-ready code wait before being promoted into production?

- What's the time difference between code first being checked out to it running in production?

- How are regressions and fallbacks affecting development flow?

With zAdviser, ISPW customers now have a way to identify the code contributing to technical debt and determine immediate, optimal actions such as revitalizing and refactoring essential mainframe code on the platform or eliminating obsolete code. This allows them to begin taking small steps that build confidence and lead to big improvements in quality, velocity and efficiency.

ISPW ensures customers' mainframe code pipelines are secure, stable and streamlined throughout the DevOps lifecycle. Through an expanded Promotion Analysis feature, ISPW automatically identifies dependencies so that vast numbers of components can be deployed confidently.

For example, if a copybook is changed, all related programs that have been compiled and are ready for promotion can be confirmed before deployment. Development teams can catch overlooked components and other issues early in the lifecycle, helping them avoid issues downstream in the CI/CD process. Ultimately, this accelerates build and deploy velocity on the mainframe and in cross-platform efforts.

Compuware's continued "open borders" approach to DevOps enables customers to integrate our mainframe-focused tools into a multi-vendor, cross-platform DevOps toolchain of choice. In keeping with this approach, Compuware is announcing expanded integration of ISPW and Git, the version control software-of-choice for many distributed development teams.

The integration helps developers with little mainframe experience work confidently with mainframe source code. Changes in Git are now automatically synchronized back into the mainframe where ISPW's automated build, deploy and fallback capabilities can be leveraged in a CI/CD pipeline. By employing consistent methods for all code across all platforms, customers will gain consistent visibility into their diverse codebases and ease the process of managing code throughout the enterprise.

"Reducing technical debt inherent in mainframe applications is essential for any organization looking to incorporate mainframe applications into their CI/CD pipelines," said Jason Bloomberg, president of industry analyst firm Intellyx. "With the new analytics from zAdviser along with modern mainframe CI/CD tools like ISPW and its integration with Git, it's possible to break down the silos separating mainframe development from the rest of the DevOps effort, thus reducing technical debt and extending the speed, quality, and collaboration benefits of CI/CD to the mainframe."

Compuware is now offering a customized end-to-end service that leverages expert ISPW technical resources and proven best practices to provide ongoing administrative support of ISPW.

ISPW Sentry Services provides remote access to the highest skilled ISPW resources for expert assistance with maintenance, upgrades and enhanced support services. The program is committed to meeting best-in-class SLAs across the world for a fraction of client's current administrative costs.

"The modernization of mainframe software delivery to a state of high-performance is absolutely achievable, said Compuware CEO Chris O'Malley. "Companies can transform their most critical back-end platform by enabling a preferred developer experience, automating manual-process constraints, integrating with best-in-class tools and inspiring a culture of continuous improvement inspired and guided by software delivery KPIs of velocity, quality and efficiency."