JUNE 25, 1990 Po; WEEK APPLIGATION DEVELOPMENT NEO APPLJED INTELLIGENCE Changing Technology Calls for New Information Strategies will focus increasingly on the identifica- Many organiza- tion and implementation of standards— tions are realign- the use of standards for graphical user ing their corpo- interfaces, database interfaces, commu- rate information nication protocols, design information strategjes in re: and operating environmentS. sponse to major Standards are already taking root in changes erupting the CASE arena, as a result of IBM s an- in both hardware and software technology. As shown in the fig- ure, the comput: ing landscape is being trans- formed by a number of fac- tors, including the growing power of desktop computers, the consolidation of: PCs into LANS, the use of file servers to facilitate data access, and the distribu- tion of processing power and dala throughout networks of diverse systems. In response, many organizations are | shifting their focus to integrated com- '. puting environments, intercorporate net- works, multilayered hardware architec- tures and the development of coopera- tive-processing applications. Increasingly, large mainframe applica- tions are being broken up into program modules that can run across a network of computers. User-interface functions and many processing operations are be- ing moved to the desktop, leaving the mainframe to control computer net: works and deliver access to large Sorpo« rate databases. Applications development is also un- dergoing fundamental changes. Within a few years, program design will be per- formed almost exclusively on the desk- top. Developers will use integrated com- puter-aided software engineering (I- CASE) tools to generate applications automatically, rather than rely on inefti- cient hand-coding technigues with lan- guages such as COBOL. ae information omen also TIS MARTIN "m me da En SE A v NZATOSET z Vithin-the PETE at the-Per nouncement of AD/Cycle, a common re- pository standard that governs the stor- age of CASE design information. This standard will make it possible for users - to select the optimal CASE tools from multiple vendors for each phase of the development process. So what kind.of strategic vision o a ii mra na NEREE V Be Dirt ij gaj mi ] nat — J ZPol an Poppaylel red nani soka aja pase ora IPOTE iim, pobi ij Corporate information -|- di Na A should we be adopting as we move to-: . Therefore, an information strategy must identify the architectures, method- ologies and tools that can be tapped to strategy is to meet the critical success fac- meet an organization's goals. This re- tors of an organization. It's no longer good guires an overall strategic game plan enough to use information systems Simpiy that may introduce the company to en" to develop payroll systems in the back of- tirely new hardware and software fice. The corporate information-systems technigues. šči seee Other options that can help an organi- zation reach its goals are methodologies based on rapid prototyping, such as RAD; close involvement of end users; joint application-design workshops; small teams of experienced analysts; and the use of I-CASE tools that are ca- pable of generating 100 percent of an application's code on the desktop. A principal objective of migrating ap plications development to the desktop is to create code that can be exported or transported to the target environment. Within IBM's Systems Application Ar- chitecture, that target environment might be a PS/2, an AS/400 minicom- puter or a System 370 mainframe. Implementation of this type of strate- gic vision can result in major improve- ments to productivity and at the same time meet the critical success factors of an organization. | Next week, I will discuss the selection of applications-development tools that ča meet the reguirements imposed by ao — vanced development m ole integrated computing architectures. O! ward the applications-development envi- ronment of the 19905? A major criterion for an information Personal V IT X »- - imormaljon (£ aim a rem per na ori m o SEG — SM —mm——— sv raj eci-le nel into matian- kuli) —ut z gitjig h The concepts embodied. in this article are described in the High-Productivity Technology volume in The James Mar- tin Report Series. For more informa- tion on this volume, call (617) 639- 1958. For information on seminars, contact (in the United States and Can- ada) Technology Transfer Institute, | cia John Avakian department has to identify ways in which information can be leveraged to gaina strategic advantage—for example, now more productive development methodolo- . gies such as rapid applications develop: 74] 10th St., Santa Monica, Cal f. ment (RAD) can be used to develop appli- 90402 (21 3) 394-8305. In Europe, con cations faster and at a much lower cost, -tact Savant, 2 New St., Carnforth, | or how information technology can be Lancs., LA5 9BX United, Kungdom | used to do more with less. (0524) 734 505. | | The COBOL rog mer) Workstation and Its Impact:on Productivity The Micro Focus Developers Seminar Schedule The Programmer Workstation environment uses personal computers as intelligent, distributed workstations for developing, testing and maintaining host-based COBOL applications: At these Developers Seminars you will: 63" See the positive impact the programmer workstation can have on programmer productivity 15 See an in depth technical demonstration of the Micro Focus COBOL/2 Workbench facilities vs" Watch CICS and IMS code offloaded from the biči running under the integrated Workbench testing environment vs Evaluate the workstation's potential in your organization 68 Learn about latest product developments and future trends MICRO FOCUS A Better Way oj Programmi ng" me on — PE eo | oo ž pi šč Po m omo — no —— There i Is no rje fo emi a Micro Tu kina Seminar. For more information about the Developers Seminar or about Micro Focus lie call 415-856-4161. | NASINI HE a dell sed zdi % Ee ERA MM pra ida S i Feš iriy PE Ma 1 LIKE | sa ka ki ilo Lava h BR — Ki zača, REJE: J l ime a ii Zer ea Pa ze ja ' a j ka Louie uti s) rm ] i ari | les and ne ja a Re Pac paši sne ai b, MA m | | FoFE ui 7 " t, Na k nm ii mom VE