News

Mainframe SCM Software Gets Better Visualization

• By David Ramel
• 04/04/2016

Mainframe computing specialist Compuware announced the addition of better visualization capabilities to its ISPW source code management (SCM) and release automation offering.

"Compuware has brought intuitive visualization capabilities to its recently acquired ISPW SCM solution, so developers can immediately see how any code change they are working on relates to the rest of the mainframe environment," the company said in a Friday news release. "This is an important capability given the extensive, unanticipated, and potentially adverse impacts a seemingly minor code change in one program can have on multiple other programs due to complex -- and typically undocumented -- inter-relationships between mainframe applications and databases."

The company said it also integrated ISPW SCM with its Topaz for Program Analysis to help developers visualize complex application logic, spot compile errors, and conduct other program analysis. It said the new capabilities help enterprises deal with the pressures of today's new cross-platform DevOps environments.

A new mobile UI helps DevOps managers respond quickly to alerts generated when code changes are ready for approval, the company said, which helps to eliminate common causes of code-promotion delays in mainframe implementations.

Compuware said the enhancements also bolster testing and QA tasks, by helping developers quickly extract pertinent testing data.

The updates serve to help enterprises modernize their existing, legacy code bases, even if they don't write much new mainframe code anymore. These legacy applications, often written in languages such as Cobol, PL/I or Assembler, must be updated in modern environments that support an increasing amount of user- and customer-facing distributed, Web, cloud and mobile workloads.

"As an ever-growing number of non-mainframe applications make an ever-growing number of calls to the mainframe, the agility of large enterprises increasingly depends on their ability to quickly, safely and efficiently modify mainframe code," said Compuware CEO Chris O'Malley. "Compuware is the only mainframe ISV aggressively innovating to deliver visualization solutions that meet this customer challenge -- thereby empowering mainframe customers to consistently out-perform any and all competitors in the digital economy."