How To Replace an AS/400 For Owners of Custom RPG Software Copyright vLegaci Corp 2014 How To Replace An AS/400 For Owners of Custom RPG Software Table of Contents Why?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 With what?. . . . . . . . . . . 4 How?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 How To Replace An AS/400 WHY? Business Needs Most businesses today compete in a radically different environment than when their legacy RPG applications were first developed. The need for flexibility, rapid change, process improvement and integration with cloud, mobile and data analytics were barely conceived at the time. Aging software moves in the opposite direction of business needs. Business need for agility over the past 20 years Software agility over 20 year lifespan The science of software engineering is conclusive that as software is continually changed aging software becomes progressively more difficult, slower and risky to change. Aging Code As described in detail in our whitepaper, AS/400 and RPG: Too Old For A New Age Of Business, almost all legacy RPG applications suffer from substantial quality problems and technical debt. This is typical of old software in any language, and reflects years of accumulated imperfections, shortcuts and deferred improvements. Assessed in terms of ISO Software Quality Metrics, most legacy applications score very poorly in maintainability, modularity, reusability, analyzability, changeability, and testability. Programming Resources Also described in the white paper is evidence that in 2014 the pool of RPG programmers is roughly 20% of the size if was in 2005. RPG job postings 2005-2014 courtesy Indeed.com A related concern is that legacy application knowledge tends to become heavily siloed within IT. Business users typically have very limited understanding of the business rules and processes within their applications and become heavily dependent on a few RPG gurus with limited availability. Antiquated, un-modernizable architecture Unfortunately there structural shortcomings of legacy RPG applications that are beyond the reach of feasible RPG modernization capabilities: Monolithic, unexposable logic No business processes model Tightly coupled modules No management of business rules Highly tangled logic No visibility to business users No metrics for process improvement No visual architectural model No social workplace capability Copyright vLegaci Corp 2014 3 How To Replace An AS/400 WITH WHAT? For decades, enterprise scale custom applications have been developed with languages such as COBOL, RPG, Java and .Net. All of these now belong in a category called legacy business languages. IBM BPM offers a demonstrably superior way to develop enterprise-scale custom business applications. “The model is the code.” With its visual modeling of all workflow and logic, and its immediate playback execution, BPM accelerates change and enables understanding for both IT and users far beyond what is possible by looking at specification documents or lines of code. • Rapid development • Unbeatable changeability • Visible to users • Collaborative development • Social workplace • Built-in process metrics • Energized process improvement Model the logic and click the run button and it’s executing. No detail too small, no behind the scenes piles of code. No code generation - the model is the code…the executable code Speed plus Game-changing IT-Business Collaboration IBM BPM’s focus on business processes rather than complex programming skills makes it much more suitable for RPG staff transition than Java or .Net. By making software development a truly collaborative experience between IT and the business, many steps in the traditional development cycle are reduced or removed. Users participate directly as workflow is diagrammed, screens are laid out, business rules are defined and prototypes are instantly executed for review. Widespread, consistent knowledge accelerates improvement and drives more insightful innovation. Features of Custom Software and Application Architecture Process workflow and business rules modeled visually The visual design model is the executable software Process logic visible to users Process execution visible to management Dramatically reduces development effort Made for rapid change Facilitates IT-user collaboration Built-in process metrics capture and analysis Drives process improvement and innovation Provides fully integrated social workplace functionality Facilitates scalable innovation Copyright vLegaci Corp 2014 Built-in with BPM Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Practical with RPG, Java,etc N N N N N N N N N N N 4 How To Replace An AS/400 HOW? Roadmap BPM projects are characterized by fairly quick, repeated deliveries of value. There are several strategies that can be followed. This roadmap gives a general view of how a legacy to BPM transition can be rolled out. 30 days 90 days Proof of Concept Pilot BPM Project Choose and develop the first real project. It should be: • Deployable in roughly 90 days • Visible but not mission critical This will serve to set up infrastructure and begin hands-on training of staff as desired. Watch a 2-3 day demo BPM project be developed start to finish. 90 days Iteration 2, 3, etc Subsequent iterations will follow the strategy as developed. These iterations can be increasingly lead by staff, assisted and supplemented as needed. Project Infrastructure and Tool Development In the “background” of BPM development, infrastructure and tools can be developed “leading and in parallel.” This can include things such as common data objects, common UI patterns , common services to be reused, database synchronization and dealing with legacy transition issues. Orientation to BPM For Business leaders, IT Management, IT Staff, Subject Matter Experts • Answer the question, “what is BPM?” • View BPM as a user and as a collaboration and development tool • Begin participation in “envisioning” sessions to define applications Training Training is mostly delivered as hands-on training in the development of real applications. • Agile/BPM Methodology • BPM application envisioning • BPM development • BPM infrastructure and administration Develop Re-engineering and Transition Strategy* • Business process discovery (opt) • Document business priorities • Find partitioning opportunities • Develop iteration plan • Analyze data sync requirements * See next page for more discussion of strategy Copyright vLegaci Corp 2014 5 How To Replace An AS/400 HOW? Strategy There are multiple strategies available for transitioning from legacy systems to BPM. A key determinant of the right strategy are the forces driving the project: • Technology (push by IT) - Retire the existing system as soon as possible • Business needs (pull by business project demands) - Respond to specific business needs for improved software and provide it via BPM rather than the legacy system. Initial Project* Remaining Projects Fully Planned Rewrite (IT driven) Push Technically Opportunistic (do what’s easy first) (IT driven) Pilot Project Pull Process Opportunistic (Business driven) Technical gap coverage (IT driven, as needed) Final Decommission Push (IT driven) * The purpose of the Pilot Project is to deploy a first BPM application, familiarize everyone with BPM and get the infrastructure up and running. This project should attempt to limit technical challenges so the team can concentrate on learning the task of deploying of a BPM application. Copyright vLegaci Corp 2014 6 How To Replace An AS/400 HOW? Architecture IBM BPM consists of the components shown in blue, below, plus others for performance, analysis and advanced features. IBM BPM does not include an application database of its own, but rather users connect to a database of their choice, which could optionally be a redesigned AS/400 database. Transitioning from legacy systems involves partitioning the work into phases which typically results in interfacing between the old and new systems. A variety of options are available for interfacing, as shown. BPM Designer BPM Designer BPM Designer for developers (Developer (Developer desktop clients) Windows desktop clients) Eclipse desktop clients AS/400, iSeries, IBM i User Portal BPM User User PortalPortal (Any browser) (Any browser) Any browser or mobile device BPM Process Center Web services optional Legacy Programs Execution Application Repository Administration Process Execution Windows, Linux, AIX Legacy data access JDBC, SQL, Stored Procs optional Legacy AS/400 Database Data synchronization optional Copyright vLegaci Corp 2014 New Database DB/2 SQL Server Oracle 7 How To Replace An AS/400 HOW? Hit the start button We offer three ways to get started: Two hour BPM tour We give you a two hour, personal, customized, highly interactive tour of BPM via web conference. Using our easy to understand demo application we show you: • What it’s like to use a BPM application as a user • How we went about developing the application • How easy it is to change and redeploy the application • How easy it is to develop for mobile • A brief overview of the architecture and installation configuration • The process metrics and analysis available for management • The social work aspect of BPM • The software tools we are using and price points Cost: $250 Proof of Concept BPM Project We work with you to jointly develop a small, example application. You act as the subject matter expert and we do most of the coding, which you watch and learn. This usually consists of a few hours of joint online preparation and 2-3 days onsite at your location. You see: • All items covered in the Two Hour Tour, plus • How to develop a BPM application from scratch • How to use our simple, yet advanced Agile/BPM methodology • Optionally, how to connect to your existing system Cost: $2500-$4000 BPM Cloud Application Development We develop a small application of your choice using IBM’s Cloud-based BPM platform. When we are finished this will be a live, production application for your organization. This consists of training and development work by you, to the extent you wish, anywhere from having us do everything, to a step-by-step hands-on training program as part of development. You receive: • All benefits covered in the Two Hour tour and POC project, plus • Training in all aspects of BPM that you desire • Participation in actual development to the extent that you desire • Training in the support of the live application, or support from us Cost: Project and process dependent Copyright vLegaci Corp 2014 8 You can replace your legacy AS400 applications. Contact us to start the discussion. vLegaci Corp. 2950 Buskirk Ave., #300 Walnut Creek, CA 94597 [email protected] www.vlegaci.com Copyright vLegaci Corp 2014 9