A detailed validation is extremely important to any mainframe migration project. Our Automated Testing solution alleviates the pain of manually developing test scripts for migrated online and batch applications within the scope of a modernisation initiative. It also ensures functionally equivalent testing for efficient defect identification and rapid remediation. This reduces cost, resource burden, and modernisation project timelines, ensuring optimal performance of the modernised estate in production.
Automated Testing
Why modernise?
CHALLENGES
Scarcity of domain expertise
Developers who understand mainframe technology are reaching retirement age and no one is being trained to replace them, resulting in a steadily diminishing talent pool. As this shortage grows, the costs and risk of relying on the mainframe will continue to rise.
Limited flexibility
Companies are rapidly moving to modern environments and practices such as DevOps and the Cloud. The mainframe and the underlying systems that support it were not designed for modern IT. This results in difficult integrations and limited flexibility.
Exorbitant costs
Mainframes cost as much as 4,500 percent more to operate than equivalent Cloud counterparts. This figure is compounded by rising licensing and maintenance fees for ancillary mainframe applications and databases.
Automated Testing
OUR SOLUTION
Testing is a critical phase of any modernisation project and typically accounts for over 50 percent of the entire modernisation effort. Although key business logic is retained through modernisation efforts, the underlying applications are adapted to work within a new target operating environment. Thus, a detailed validation of the migration is extremely important, and the best means of achieving that validation is with thorough testing.
Testing is often burdensome to customers because subject matter experts are tasked with documenting step-by-step use cases for replication in the new environment. These subject matter experts are power users who have a deep working knowledge of the legacy operating environment and are often business-facing and non-technical. This combination of circumstances can result in oversight and miscommunication in test execution, which adds significant time and effort to modernisation projects.
Our Automated Testing solution provides customers with a tool to trace actions in online applications on the mainframe using IBM PCOM (or another TN3270 emulator). It also offers a means for recording, executing, and comparing batch jobs across the source and target operating environments. This automation removes the human element from key activities, reducing the potential for miscommunication and decreasing the time it takes to develop and execute comprehensive test cases.
Batch testing
Using the Automated Testing solution, mainframe assets, including source code and job scheduler definitions, are populated into our Modernisation Platform-as-a-Service (ModPaaS), which is integrated into the CI / CD test pipeline.
The ModPaaS engine then parses and analyses batch assets, determines batch streams, and generates batch test assets (test scripts, test cases, etc.). These test assets are executed against the mainframe (source) environment and the target environment. The results of which are compared using our Automated Testing toolset, which generates reports and insights for review in a centralised dashboard.
Online testing
Subject matter experts connect to the test environment using a terminal emulator, where our Automated Testing solution records sessions. These recordings are encrypted and transferred to ModPaaS, where the 3270 trace files are replayed and processed. Test cases for the target environment are automatically generated from these recordings, passed to the CI / CD test pipeline, compared using our Automated Testing toolset, and presented by way of our centralised monitoring dashboard.
Over 35 years of COBOL and mainframe modernisation experience
More than 500 successful modernisation projects completed
Over 2.5 billion lines of code refactored through automation
“We were looking to accomplish two things with the pilot. The first was to prove the solution would work on GE hardware under our roof. The second was to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt to our users that their UI wasn’t going to change.”
Marc Rubel, Executive Director of Application Development
GE Capital
Additional insights to help you modernize
RESOURCES
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2021 Mainframe Modernisation Report
Explore the the impact Covid-19 is having, and will continue to have, on modernisation plans, and the case for application modernisation amongst large enterprises with annual revenues over $1 billion.
Read report Report -
Know the details, reduce the risk
This whitepaper gives an in-depth explanation on why a detailed assessment of legacy applications and databases is essential for proper strategic modernisation planning and decision-making.
Read whitepaper Whitepaper -
So, what is Automated Testing?
Blog Read blog -
Live Discussion: The 2021 Mainframe Modernisation Business Barometer Report
Webinar Watch on demand -
How cloud migration can help your organisation to go green
Blog Read blog -
Know the details, reduce the risk: How to begin your mainframe modernisation journey
Webinar Watch on demand
News & Opinions
The state of legacy IT skills shortages
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