JADe / EV

The scheduling world is gradually becoming more complex and heterogeneous, and refers to several different platform types based both on open system (Linux, Unix, Windows) and z/OS.

It continues to become more and more difficult to find skills that can support all of these environments, especially that cover scheduling tools and scripting languages

On occasion, time limitations regarding the period between the end of the application development phases and their “promotion” and deployment into a production environment, together with the difficulty of obtaining all the detailed information required, can prevent staff from creating optimized, reliable and error-free objects.

In addition to this, the application developers want to acquire their own independence in designing and building scheduling networks. This is due to a constant requirement that they are continually required to communicate instructions to the production area through more or less codified forms (documents, e-mails etc.).

JADe/EV gives a clear answer to these needs by providing all stakeholders involved in scheduling matters to work at their best even in very complex scenarios.

THE JADE/EV SOLUTION

JADe/EV provides effective support for the entire life cycle of batch applications, both for Z/OS and open systems, from design through development and maintenance, automatically documenting every phase and with a unique mode of operation, independent of the choice of scripting language or operating system.
JADe/EV allows for the efficient design of new batch application flows and also facilitates the maintenance of all existing application flows without the knowledge of a specific batch scheduler environment or scripting language, at the same time automatically applying local standards enforcement, naming conventions and structure all the while automatically generating both the execution JCLs or Shell scripts and batch schedules.

JADe/EV manages the generation of scripts/ JCL as a process of continual development. In this
way, the user can immediately obtain a very precise understanding of what their work will produce during the design of activities.

Automatic generation is provided for the “physical” objects and the user simultaneously obtains both the generation of the scripts/JCL and the related commands for the batch scheduler.
The elimination of any breaks between the design process and generation process means that the work can be verified immediately and any errors corrected before they cause problems.

OBJECTIVES AND FUNCTIONALITY OF JADE/EV

JADe/EV drastically reduces the time needed to set up a batch application, both scripts/JCL and Schedules, with a minimum of skill required.

The JADe/EV solution makes it possible to:

  • Create new schedules, Jobs and Scripts using an effective web interface that allows easy access to all appropriate details
  • Manage users based on their roles and competence using SAF or LDAP
  • Automatically acquire information on the pre- existing objects through a reverse engineering process, avoiding the need to manually enter a large amount of information
  • Define, through the Administrator role, reusable components and predefined functions that contain complex logic which can easily be included through a few clicks, asking the user for any additional required information
  • Add standard advanced error handling in scripts
  • Preview the generated JOBs during the generation process
  • Automatically obtain the complete design of the application as prepared by the applications development staff, implemented with the technical information specific to the production environment
  • In addition to forcing adherence to client site standards, it allows the client to split the roles of “designer” (normally an application developer) and “approver” (normally a senior production control staff member) who can approve or disapprove the new object on the basis of predefined standards or rules
  • Automatically generate the scripts (Dos Bat, Powershell, Unix/Linux Bash, Korn, TWS zCentric) and JCL objects in full compliance with the applicable test or production environment standards
  • Automatically generate the Batch Scheduling Nets for most popular Batch Schedulers both for Z/OS and open systems (LUW)
  • Create and/or modify Packages and connect to the most commonly used change management tools in order to allow synchronizing with the application life cycle and adding the relative versioning

BENEFITS

  • Drastically reduces the time and work required to design, generate and maintain batch applications
  • Allows all personnel to prepare Jobs, Scripts and Schedules without having a specific skill in scripting languages or in batch scheduling tools
  • Provides the development teams the independence in creating batch applications while virtually eliminating the need to transfer detailed information to the production management area
  • Optimizes and enforces adherence to corporate standards when creating objects related to a specific environment (test, production…)
  • Simplifies the introduction of the production objects within the software maintenance lifecycle.