1 Pulling the Plug on Your Mainframe Automated Refactoring Colorado s Automated Child Support Enforcement System
2 Workshop Speakers Susie Gager, Colorado Child Support Services Craig Carson, Colorado Office of Information Technology Arne Gerhard, innowake Doug Howard, Moderator
3 Agenda Background Road to Solution Implementation Lessons Learned
4 Background Child Support in Colorado ~150,000 cases 500,000+ parents and children Over 5 M people in Colorado Over $478 M collected in 2015 for families
5 Background - ACSES 700 64 70,000 System Users in counties Registered Website Users 1.5 M Lines of Code 2,000 Screens 400 Batch Jobs 34 Interface Partners 7,000 Modules 70 Scheduled Networks 59 ADABAS files 10,000 Work files Embodies nearly 30 years of business rules and refinements and gets high marks from users.
Background ACSES Interfaces 6
7 Background Legacy System Challenges Need for modernization: Mainframe environment difficult to incorporate new technology Interoperability limitations: non-relational database, dependence on middleware (Entirex Broker) ADABAS/Natural developers and mainframe developers in general hard to find and hire System needs to be modernized to meet expectations of business Technical obsolescence Cost of the mainframe environment expected to rise significantly
8 Road To Solution Option 1: Replace Rip and Replace -complete new system from ground up: high risk, high cost, long duration Option 2: Build parallel application Integrate two environments and incrementally modernize: technically challenging, either sync two databases or implement a SOA message architecture across two platforms Option3: Migrate first Migrate system as is away from mainframe to new environment first, then modernize incrementally in new environment.
9 Migrate First: Advantages Automated Conversion Eliminates human error - If we fix a problem it s fixed throughout the system One-to-One Conversion New system operates just like the old - No user training required, screens and navigation virtually the same Users will know immediately if something is not working correctly If its broke in the old system it will be broken in the new. Retain the business knowledge of the technical staff Low risk approach
10 Migrate First: Concerns Maintainability If 100% generated code, what will the resulting java look like? Will it be maintainable? Correctness If some portion is hand coded how will we find all the bugs in semi-automated solutions? Vendor Lock-In Will we leave SAG only to become dependent upon another vendor s runtime? Performance Will it perform as well as mainframe to user s satisfaction? Developer skills Will our existing developers be able to maintain the new code? Development process changes Culture change: new IDE culture innowake brought to the table from the start: natclipse, lcm, meeclipse
11 User Requirements / Constraints End User Concerns We met in several forums with end user managers early on to get their input on our modernization approach Based on past experience they wanted a strong voice in determining whether the new system was truly ready for implementation Outcomes They (strongly) requested that there be no big bang overnight implementation They (strongly) requested that we implement the new system with a traditional pilot parallel approach, such that they could use the new system side by side with the old to ensure it would work correctly.
12 How Do We Implement And Meet User Demand? Option 1: Synchronization Parallel operation meant synchronizing databases, a technically challenging project in and of itself Option 2: Database sharing (databridge) Compromise: Implement the online system in parallel using the innowake databridge with the existing ADABAS. Then convert from ADABAS to Oracle as a second step. This approach allowed the online system to be used in a production setting alongside the old system while giving us total fall back to the old system in the event of a problem.
13 Migration Project Scope Natural Java Adabas Oracle JCL (Interpreted) JCL Natural Editor Java IDE Mainframe Linux
14 Project Schedule 2011 2012 2013 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 ICB IDE Development Integration Pre-UAT UAT Pilot Data Conversion System Acceptance Statewide Support Refactoring Development Test Production
15 Pilot Phase Pilot phase from December 2012 to April 2013 Goal: Reduce project risk Ensure end user acceptance Challenges: Parallel usage of the existing 3270 and the migrated Java application Keeping data in sync between the two systems Approaches: Standard Deployment Data Synchronization Data Bridge (Database sharing)
16 Pilot Phase - Databridge Pilot county 1 has successfully tested the new runtime Pilot counties 1 + 2 uses the new ACSES application Continue for additional pilot counties and remainder of state Clients Runtime Database County 1 (Online) County 2 (Online) County 3-64 (online) Java / Web Natural Oracle Adabas Unix z/os Batch
17 Statewide Rollout - Databridge Migrate data from ADABAS to Oracle All online and batch processing will run on the migrated application Clients Runtime Database County 1-64 (Online) Java / Web Oracle Unix Batch Extract, Transform & Load DB Natural ADABAS z/os Decommission Mainframe ACSES (Natural and Adabas)
18 Results Schedule and budget Ahead of schedule until the last month of the project Project delivered under budget Performance Performance as good as or better than the mainframe User impact / acceptance Parallel pilot well received by county users Smooth conversion Virtually no user or client impact
19 Keys To Success Teamwork and commitment Teamwork and commitment of the State and state staff to the project was an essential key to success Both sides being willing to put in the extra effort when necessary to keep the project moving according to plan Excellent collaboration when the inevitable problems surfaced Awesome unified team working across the pond, focused on success Implementation approach Test, test and more testing Parallel pilot made possible with databridge (transitioned users, resolved connectivity/security/browser issues ahead of data conversion)
Modernization The Big Picture 20
21 Demo Mainframe The old system Web Based The same thing but in the web Modernized The better system
Demo 22
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30 Lessons Learned Teamwork/Partnership Testing Infrastructure support Pilot and the Databridge Program area support Daily stand-ups (visible cards) Implementation preparedness
31 Lessons Learned Questions?
32 Lessons Learned Contact Information Craig Carson craig.carson@state.co.us Susie Gager susie.gager@state.co.us Arne Gerhard - arne.gerhard@innowake.com
33 Post Session Housekeeping RATE this session in the conference app To download the conference app search for APHSA Events VISIT the vendors in the Exhibit Hall during Breakfast and the Networking Breaks to learn more about the solutions presented throughout the day. DONATE to Childhelp the ISM Technology for a Cause campaign to raise $10,000 to help stop child abuse in Arizona and across the country.
34 THANKS FOR COMING See you again soon