THE CHALLENGE
Software change management in complex environments is an increasing challenge for development teams.
The development of multi-platform applications with short development cycles requires the use of a change management
solution that supports the whole change management process, starting with the change request and ending with the automated
deployment into production environment. Project management needs to stay informed about the current status of all activities in
the project at all times. To meet audit regulations, it is crucial to have changes automatically deployed and logged.
This ensures a complete traceability of all changes in the system.
THE SOLUTION
The MatchPoint Software Change Management Solution, developed by CM First AG, ensures an efficient and
secure management of all software changes. The software supports the whole development and deployment
process, from the creation of a change request to the automated deployment into the production environment.
Projects are better managed with current status information about all activities in the development and testing phase.
Quality and security are increased by automation, which reduces human error during the deployment process.
All changes to the application can be deployed automatically and then logged to a database, enabling a traceable
process which is crucial for meeting audit requirements. Every object is saved to a backup file before it is deployed.
Therefore, every deployment can be reversed if necessary.
The software is developed with the ARADEnvironment CA Plex from CA, in a client/server architecture with a user friendly interface.
MATCHPOINT COMPONENTS
CHANGE REQUESTS
MatchPoint provides an overview of status and activities for each change request. Change requests record data such as status,
responsibilities, deadlines, and priorities. It is also possible to attach documents or other objects to a change request, which allows
for easy documentation. Change requests can be filtered and sorted, giving each project member his needed view of the data.
For those change requests that result in a program change in the application, the modified or new objects can be attached to
the change request. A change request can contain multiple promotions. The attached objects can then be deployed automatically to
the required environment.
PROJECT INFORMATION
Change requests can be assigned to projects which allows reporting on a project level. Projects contain information such as project members,
timelines and time sheets.
With the billing module, project work can be billed directly to the customer based on the recorded hours and expenses.
CUSTOMER INFORMATION
MatchPoint allows the management of customers who are working with the applications. Customers can be designated
as departments within your company or actual external companies. Each change request can be assigned to a customer,
which allows for reporting and timesheets on the customer level. It is also possible to assign entire projects to a customer.
AUTOMATED DEPLOYMENT
A crucial component of the MatchPoint is the automated deployment of changes to the production system. Through automation,
the changes are deployed efficiently and without manual processes. This saves time and eliminates a possible source of errors,
increasing quality and security of the managed application.
Environments
An environment can consist of an unlimited number of directories and System i libraries that hold the application objects.
The location can be defined for each object type in the application. This allows easier management of very complex application structures.
Each environment within a deployment path can have a different structure of directories and System i libraries, e.g., all System i objects
in the test environment are in the same library but a separation of data objects and programs is required in the production environment.
This can be easily configured also for Windows directory structures.
Once the environments are configured, the deployments can be done automatically.
Deployment Path
The environments can be set in the sequence of the deployment path (e.g. development, test, training, production).
This sequence can be different for any application in your system.
Change Log
One of the most important aspects in change management is the traceability of the changes that are done to a system.
With each deployment in MatchPoint, a log is written to document the exact changes that have occurred, who made the changes and when.
Installation History
For every change request, there is a history for every promotion to an environment. The installation history is updated automatically
during the promotion. It can also be managed manually for environments without direct promotion access.
Cumulative Promotions
A Cumulative change request (Cumulative PTF or Release) can contain multiple change requests. All objects of the assigned
change requests can be deployed with the cumulative change request.
DEPLOYMENT MODULES
Definition of environments and locations
An environment can consist of an unlimited number of directories and libraries. For each object type the location of the object can be defined.
Once the directories and libraries of the environments have been configured, the deployment can be done automatically.
The deployment engine will do all of the necessary tasks to deploy the objects.
Windows File System
Deployment of objects located in Windows directories (or e.g. Linux with Samba). You can deploy all object types that are configured in your system.
When deploying objects in subdirectories, the subdirectories will be created in the target environment in case they don’t exist.
For multi-language applications language subdirectories can be defined.
IBM System i
All IBM System i objects can be automatically deployed (if they can be copied). For the deployment of System i logical and physical files,
all the necessary considerations are being made by the deployment engine.
For IBM System i physical files, you can define whether the data is to be deployed with the object or the data of the target environment
is to be saved and restored after the deployment of the object.
IBM System i Remote
IBM System i Remote will be used when source and target environment are not on the same System i server or not on the same IBM System i
logical partition. The promotion can use SNA or FTP protocol to transfer objects to the target server.
Packages
For situations where there is no connection to the target environment (e.g. customer system), MATCHPOINT will create packages that can be
sent to the customer. The packages are zipped and, if needed, automatically transferred to an FTP-Server.
IMPORT MODULES
The Object Import modules provide an easy way to select objects for deployment.
Objects that need to be deployed with a change request can be easily attached to the change request. Objects can be selected from an object database,
entered manually or imported through one of the import modules of MatchPoint.
CA Plex
The Plex Import Module enables the import of objects from the CA Plex Model. A list, subject area, or a package can be selected to import objects.
The import parameters control which objects from the model are to be imported and what object type will be assigned to the promotion object.
Filters can be set on any object triple, such as language, generation status, and type. This import feature is only available with CA Plex 5.5 SP1.
Windows File System
The Windows directory Import enables the import of objects located in a windows directory. It is possible to select only objects with a specified creation date.
CM MatchPoint allows for the import of subdirectories in the specified directory.
The subdirectories will be created at deployment time if they are not present in the target environment.
IBM System i
The IBM System i Import enables the import of objects from a System i library. It is possible select objects that are created by a
specific user and/or during a specific time frame. All IBM System i objects that can be copied can be imported and automatically
deployed, including IBM System i physical and logical files.
ISV MODULE
The ISV Module provides great functionality when MatchPoint is used to manage customer installations.
The MatchPoint ISV Module enables an extended management of customer information, including the assignment of environments to customers.
This makes it possible to promote updates directly to the customer. The ISV Module also includes an Installation History for every customer,
which shows not only the installed updates but also the updates that are ready for installation for every customer.
SOURCE CODE MODULE
The source code module allows for check-out and check-in functionality for IBM System i source codes. It ensures that only one developer
works on a source code at the time. The source code is deployed together with the object. The check-in process creates a version
of the source code and makes the source code available for check-out again.
Source code can be directly displayed in MatchPoint by any specified source code editor.
This allows for comparison of multiple versions of a source code.
MatchPoint also checks if an object and its source code(s) have the same change date and time when they are promoted.
This way it is ensured that for each object the current source code is promoted and versioned.
FEATURES
E-mail Notification
In the development and deployment process, involved users (developer, tester, HTML-Designer, system administrator, project manager)
can be notified if a change request is deployed, or if a change request has a status change.
The notifications can be individualized per application version.
Backup
All deployed objects can be automatically backed up into a directory or an System i savefile before deployment.
In case a deployment causes unexpected results in the target environment, the deployment can be reversed if necessary.
Data Management
When System i physical files are deployed, there are several options of how the data in the files can be handled:
· Retain the data of the target system
· Deploy the object including data
· Clear all data from the file
Versioning
The software can maintain multiple applications as well as multiple versions of an application.
This enables versions and releases to be reflected in MatchPoint.
User Rights
User rights are specified for user groups. User rights can be specified with view/update authorities for:
· Fields
· Change Request Status
· Functions (i.e. promoting objects)
Only users with administration authority can make changes to the configuration.
Change Request Dependencies
If the deployment of a Change Request depends on the deployment of another change request, this dependency can be entered.
There are two types of dependencies: multiple change requests can only be deployed together; one change request can not be deployed before another.
The dependencies between Change Requests can be displayed in the change request overview.
During the promotion process all dependencies are resolved and displayed. If necessary, all dependent change requests are deployed together.
Object Dependencies
Objects are tested for their existence before they get deployed. For IBM System i physical files, an additional test will check if all the logical files
in the target environment are included in the promotion. This ensures that the deletion and recreation of the physical file will not fail.
An optional test will make sure that the objects in the promotion are not older than the objects in the target environment. In this case, a warning will be displayed.
Document Attachments
Documents can be attached to your change request, which allows for easy documentation. For example, concepts, print screens, etc.
Complete logging of all actions
Every change (automated or manual) is recorded in a log file. This makes it possible to trace all actions in the change management process.
Personal Developer Environment
For each developer, a personal developer environment can be configured.
This enables the definition of personal generation directories and System i libraries that will be considered in the deployment process.
Conflict Detection
This feature detects an object that should not be deployed because its version could interfere with another version of the object in the target environment.
Time Sheet
On a change request level, working hours (billable/non billable) can be entered.
These hours can be used for reporting on a change request, project member and project level.
Release/Cumulative PTF
A Cumulative change request (Cumulative PTF or Release) can contain multiple change requests.
All objects of the assigned change requests can be deployed with the cumulative change request.
Scheduled Deployments
Automatic deployments can be scheduled by setting a timer.
This allows for unattended deployment when the application is down, e.g., at night.
Source Code Management
With the source management option, it is possible to save versions of the object source code.
At deployment time, the source-code is saved into a specified savefile.
This enables the storage of a source code version with every object, in each environment.
The source code is deployed with the object during the promotion.
It is possible to create object types in MatchPoint, for which only the source code is promoted, i.e. Cobol copybooks.
This option can also be used to compile objects in the target environment by a user defined process included in the MatchPoint promotion process.
User defined process
With user defined processes, it is possible to start any process before and/or after a deployment. This can be used for
object distribution or any other individual processes. The user defined process can be linked to an environment as a
process to be executed before or after the deployment. The process can be specified to wait until the user
defined process is finished before the deployment process continues.
User defined processes in the IBM System i server can be configured to run once or to run once for every promotion object.
The object information is passed into the user defined process and can be used to i.e. compile the object or change
the object rights ( for more information see Source Code Management Documentation).
Export
All change request information can be easily exported to other windows applications. Attributes and records can be selected for export.
This allows the export of project information, e.g., into Microsoft Excel for graphical presentation and/or calculations.
LibrarySync®
This optional add-on can compare libraries from different IBM System i systems and list the object differences between the libraries.
All differences can be selected for synchronization. For the comparison of the objects, the user can select from several synchronization
types, such as creation date, source change date and object existence. LibrarySync can compare and synchronize on an object level,
including objects like DB2/400 database files and ILE-Objects.
SYSTEM i CROSS REFERENCE BROWSER
The System i Cross Reference Browser displays program and file references for a specified System i object. The references are displayed
in a tree and can be expanded for each object in the tree.
Each object in the tree can be selected to show detail information on the right side of the tree. The object information contains information
such as source change date and time. For ILE programs, the module information is also displayed.
OBJECT SOURCE ANALYZER
The Object Source Analyzer compares objects and their source codes for their change dates. This makes sure that for every object there is a current source code.
The objects can be compared to their source files in any specified library. The source code can even be on a different System i server.
