Visual COBOL Best Practices & Lessons Learned from ... - Micro Focus

solutions.delivered
Visual COBOL
Best Practices & Lessons Learned from the Field
Craig Marble, Practice Executive
April 12, 2012

2
who is.idea
© 2012 Idea. All rights reserved.

painpoint.healing
idea provides consulting services that drive business value
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3
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our.solutions
4

modernization.options
we gain credibility through honesty and skill
We provide “trusted advisor” guidance for clients who want to:
Re-host applications and data to more cost effective platforms
Redesign development and deployment process management
Re-face and integrate applications and data across platforms
Re-architect applications and processes to fit business needs
Rewrite applications to fit business IT requirements
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data
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Process
code
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6
partners.clients
© 2012 Idea. All rights reserved.

partnership.overview
idea and Micro Focus – a long-term strategic relationship
Micro Focus partner for 20 years
Member of “Migration and Transformation Consortium” (MTC)
Proven success delivering migration solutions
Early adopter of Visual COBOL
Multiple joint Visual COBOL projects
Several Micro Focus “alumni” on staff
Over 200 man-years of Micro Focus experience
7

modernization.clients
idea has delivered Micro Focus solutions to many companies
SuperValu
Chevron
Kodak
Express Scripts
Sony
City of Ft Worth
U.S. Army
United Health
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LabCorp
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GA Dept of Revenue

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game.changer
© 2012 Idea. All rights reserved.
Visual COBOL

old.new
the old way of doing things – ISPF, etc.
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Modern for its time
Integrated with source
Efficiency via keystrokes
Debugging and monitoring
Better than punch cards!
Dying development method
Siloed from new technology
Limited productivity
No appeal to new workforce!

old.new
the not-so-old way of doing things – PC Editors
Can you say, “Boring!”
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Develop on PC
Improved capabilities
Efficient GUI i.e. cut/paste
Productivity improvements
Better than green screens!
Not integrated with source
Editing only, no debugging
Gains and losses
Not appealing enough!

old.new
the wrong way of doing things
That’s just plain wrong!
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Notepad?
Really?
Doh!

old.new
the new way of doing things – Visual COBOL
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Develop in Visual Studio
Integrate with source control
Seamless .NET integration
Word and fieldname suggest
Advanced search (i.e. find all)
Debug and monitor real-time
On-the-fly test data changes
Delivery to mobile apps
Web page development
“It’s like going from Atari to Xbox”
Blurs the lines of COBOL

visual.benefits
why is Visual COBOL so important?
Significant productivity gains
Cross platform debugging
In-line calls to .NET
Multilanguage development
COBOL as managed code
I could go on and on….
It increases the value of COBOL developers
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15
real.world
© 2012 Idea. All rights reserved.

lessons.learned
real world experiences
Challenge – Using 100% COBOL developers
Spent a lot of time training on visual programming in general
Then provided basic Visual COBOL training
Reduced time to focus on advanced Visual COBOL
programming techniques, and extended ramp-up time
Best Practice – Hire the right skillset
Ideal candidate has exposure to and understanding of
programming in visual environment, esp. Visual Studio
Understands OO development, .NET framework and working
with managed code
Start learning OO concepts and languages now!
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lessons.learned
real world experiences
Challenge – Thinking in terms of Net Express
Doing things the same way as before
Using Visual COBOL like Net Express
Didn’t leverage new, advanced features of Visual COBOL
Best Practice – A fresh start
Be cognizant of what you’re doing and how to make best use
of the tools to do it
Instead of creating an interface component (IMTK), you put the
call into the COBOL code
Visual COBOL allows direct, native calls to C# or VB.NET
Avoid “that’s the way I’ve always done if before”
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lessons.learned
real world experiences
Challenge – On the cutting edge (R1, Q3 2010)
Using early adopter technology for strategic projects
We were the marines on the beach
Some issues delayed schedules
Best Practice – Use a matured release, like R4 (2012)
Use early releases for non-critical projects to gain knowledge
and experience with the tools
Wait for the subsequent release(s) for strategic, time sensitive
projects
Visual COBOL R4 is suitable for critical projects
Real world usage shakes out the kinks
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lessons.learned
real world experiences
Challenge – Source code (mis)management
Allowing developers to use the source code management
environment and process that “felt good”
Some used mainframe source control, some distributed
Multiple source code “bases”
Best Practice – Mandate SCM tools and processes
Those who used MS Team Foundation from the start were
more productive due to integration with Visual Studio
Use unified source code management from day one
Improves productivity and mitigates risk of code loss
Conformity in SCM is critical
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lessons.learned
real world experiences
Challenge – Reinventing the wheel, again
Developers eager to get down to business
“That’s easy, I’ll just create it…”
“No-one can do it better than I can…”
Best Practice – Do your internal research
It is very important to know what you have before you start
Conform to established standards, or put them in place prior to
serious development
Increases productivity and mitigates risks associated with
duplicate functions and code
Take the blinders off
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lessons.learned
real world experiences
Challenge – No prototyping prior to development
Developers eager to get down to business
“That’s easy, I’ll just create it…”
“I’ll worry about the big picture later…”
Best Practice – Walk before running to avoid falling back
What goes in which layer?
Data Access, Data Objects, Business Logic, Graphical
Interface, Human Interactive Devices
Adhering to architectural standards avoids painful rewrites and
changes later on in the cycle
Define or learn the architecture first
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lessons.learned
real world experiences
Challenge – This isn’t just COBOL development
Going from siloed to world view development
“This is what I’m doing am how I’m doing it…”
“I’ll let them worry about integrating with it…”
Best Practice – Coordinate across teams
What do front-end developers expect?
How does the business analyst expect it work?
How does the user expect it to behave?
Requires steering committee for visibility and clear
communication across all teams
Strong project management is key
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lessons.learned
real world experiences
Challenge – Trial and error
Developers like to figure things out on their own
“I can figure this out… I’ll try it this way…”
Significant waste of time and resources
Best Practice – Use the product documentation
Product documentation is there for a reason
Can resolve many “how to…” scenarios
Micro Focus Visual COBOL has decent documentation
Gets better with each release
It saves time!!
Read the manual
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questions.answers
Steve Steuart
Vice President
904.704.3465
Steve.Steuart@idea.com
Craig Marble
Practice Executive
202.957.7744
Craig.Marble@idea.com