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SOA Mainframe Decision Management
The document discusses the importance of business agility and the role of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and decision management in transforming mainframe-based core systems to enhance flexibility and responsiveness. It outlines the challenges businesses face with traditional core systems, including the complexity of decision-making and barriers to timely change, while proposing strategies for modernization and improvement through decision management practices. A case study of a healthcare company demonstrates the successful application of these principles, highlighting reduced compliance costs and improved decision-making processes.
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Editor's Notes
- #8 Common estimates: 70% - 80% of world’s data resides on mainframes 200 billion lines of COBOL code in existenceThese estimates show the true value that these characteristics provide enterprisesIn today’s market where ability to react to market changes and opportunities is so critical, core systems are proving to not be agility-friendlyMainframes flourish in a market where opportunity and necessity for change are not frequent nor rapidToday’s markets are different (refer to business agility is critical slide)Why are companies finding mainframes a barrier to agility?
- #9 Resources Requires a more specialized skill, which although can be developed through training, not many resources want to learn what is considered an antiquated technology This leads to fewer resources available Costs more to retain resources (salary, hourly rate) Employee turnover (moving on to new jobs, or retirements)
- #10 Slow time to change Strategic policies are buried in code making it difficult to locate and change Difficult to identify dependencies between applications systems making changes risky to the remainder of the enterprise Because of increased risk, more time must be taken to ensure regressions are clean – development cycle becomes longer
- #11 Data Agility requires timely, informed decisions within the enterprise Timely and informed decisions requires a holistic view of enterprise data Mainframes were not designed to inherently share data “outside of the box”
- #12 Companies must address the agility of mainframes and other core systemsPreserving core systems is not enough Core systems must be improved and enhanced to help the organization better adapt to new challengesCore systems must be transformed and modernizedRip and replace was a common approach, but proved mostly unsuccessful (re-implement the core functionality in a more modern system and programming language) High failure rate Too risky True cost is difficult to estimate Makes the DNA unwindCloning functionality leads to:An inferior implementationMissing functionality (translation must be perfect)
- #13 Application Modernization is a better optionWhy? Preserves DNA – Application Modernization key is to preserve the investment in its core systems, while enabling new capabilities to meet critical requirements for success Uses core systems as a foundation for future operations rather than wasting time, resources and money to replace them
- #14 Application Modernization of mainframesMainframe can be carved into functional “pieces” to address more complex business challengesEach service can be incrementally replaced if desiredFurther extends the ROI Much less risk, and easier to manage, smaller projectsAllows data to be more easily shared with the enterprise
- #15 Despite benefits, some challenges remain Even if we incrementally replace pieces of core system functionality, strategic decisions are still buried in the code of the pieces that remain on the mainframe This means that we still require specialized, higher-cost resources to make strategic changes to react to market changes and opportunities Time to change remains slow because of higher risks (refer back to earlier slide
- #16 SOA helps us be more connected, more flexible and more agileSOA aligns Business and ITComplete agility and flexibility means reducing risk, reducing time to change, making smarter, more consistent decisionsDecision Management is the missing piece
- #19 At its heart a decision is a choice, a selection of a course of action A decision is arrived at after consideration and it ends uncertainty or dispute about somethingDecisions select from alternatives, typically to find the one most profitable or appropriate for an organizationDecisions are made only after considering various facts or pieces of information about the situation and participantsDecisions result in an action being taken, not just knowledge being added to what’s known
- #25 Before we talk about decision services, let’s take a step backIn the “old” days applications were monolithicOver time we have recognized the value of decomposing applications and storing the components in a more declarative, reusable form
- #33 A big part of the benefit companies get from managing rules comes from putting the business in charge more directly Having business users manage business rules reduces costs by eliminating a step – that of having the business tell IT what they want so that IT can do code it – and improves accuracy by eliminating the impedance of this step It also increases business agility by making it easier for a company to respond to changes – after all the business folks notice the changes firstIn my experience, the use of business rules and a BRMS to manage high-volume, operational decisions have a proven track record in reducing application development costs and application maintenance It takes fewer developers and less time to specify how a system or service should behave using a BRMS thanks to the increased expressive power of business rules and the improved verification and testing offered by BRMS Maintenance of these rules is easier, often dramatically easier, than the maintenance of the equivalent code Not only are can the business rules be changed independently and safely; business users can participate directly in the maintenance process for the first time Domain expertise is applied more directly and less time and money are spent making changes