DEVOPSdigest

Compuware is enabling enterprises to manage mainframe COBOL application code within Atlassian JIRA Software, the popular team planning and project management software.

By integrating with JIRA Software, Compuware is bringing mainframe applications into the world of mainstream DevOps—greatly benefitting large enterprises that need to better leverage their mainframe applications as back ends for customer-facing web and mobile apps.

Benefits of the integration include:

- Unified issue management across all platforms and applications. This benefit is especially important as IT services to end-users and customers increasingly utilize code components from multiple applications running on multiple platforms.

- Technical guidance for mainstream developers with limited mainframe knowledge. This benefit is especially important as large enterprises lose their most experienced mainframe/COBOL specialists to retirement and have to shift responsibility for the maintenance and enhancement of legacy applications in the hands of developers with mainstream skill-sets.

- More rapid problem resolution via automation. This benefit is especially important as IT organizations seek to accelerate code agility while safeguarding quality and reducing costs.

Mainframe applications have become deeply ingrained in large enterprises as critical systems of record and transaction processing systems. Unfortunately, these applications have also been managed in a highly siloed manner. This siloing has left the mainframe out of the agile revolution that allows enterprises to more nimbly update their web and mobile applications. As a result, large enterprises are often unable to exploit the full potential of their mainframe applications, as they struggle with slow and inflexible processes.

The initial integration will automatically generate an issue in JIRA Software when Compuware Abend-AID or Compuware Strobe detect a problem. Any developer then tasked with that issue in JIRA Software can automatically start a Compuware Topaz Workbench debugging session, pre-configured to address the precise point in the application where the problem occurs.

“Large enterprises that fail to bring Agile and DevOps best practices to their high-value COBOL applications will remain competitively disadvantaged against smaller, nimbler market disrupters,” said Compuware CEO Chris O’Malley. “Those that succeed at making their mainframes nimble, on the other hand, will combine the competitive advantages of being big and being fast.”

“We’re thrilled that Compuware, a long-time customer of Atlassian’s products, has integrated their enterprise software for managing COBOL application code with JIRA Software,” said Bryan J. Rollins, JIRA General Manager at Atlassian. "This gives every team in the organization the ability to be agile, to move faster, and deliver quality software for customers, regardless whether they are targeting mobile, web, or mainframe."

By further integrating Compuware’s mainframe solutions with JIRA Software, large enterprises can unify their agile workflows across all code running on all platforms. The result will be a common environment for planning sprints and distributing tasks across multiple software teams, tracking team progress and re-allocating resources in the context of business requirements, executing and documenting releases, and reporting on team performance for continuous process improvement.

“Today’s digitally savvy customers demand seamless, end-to-end performance from every application,” said Jason Bloomberg, President of Intellyx. “Synchronizing IT assets from the mainframe all the way to the customer is now mandatory. The integration between Compuware and Atlassian products will enable this all-important end-to-end synchronization, and will also empower collaboration across previously siloed teams.”