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In this Edition |
"NOVEMBER HIGHLIGHTS"
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“Let's talk about traceability”
While
software engineers may well be masters at keeping track
of changes to their application data - helped
along by journaling tools - they are often less forthcoming
when it comes to tracing their own creations. How many companies
are unable to answer the questions "Who did what? when?
why?".
And, how many companies have no up-to-date application documentation?
Often seen by developers as a subtle means of control and a threat
to their personal productivity, tools that provide high levels
of
traceability
such as ARCAD-Skipper and ARCAD-Observer can come across more
as a burden than a solution.
What has changed now is that this
requirement for traceability is becoming more and more regulated.
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Current
and emerging regulations aim to maximize
the security of data produced and published by
an enterprise. Admittedly this must go some
way to improving the way our economies work.
As these regulatory constraints filter down to the IT departments,
enforced by auditors, you can bet that the sluggishness
will be fast reversed. But instead of a constraint,
this is really more of an opportunity. An opportunity for the
IT department to improve
the way it is organised. An opportunity to enter a
new “industrial” era with clearly established processes.
And finally an opportunity to significantly improve productivity because,
surprisingly, traceability in the software business
- with its manipulation of vast quantities of information
- has a more positive effect on efficiency than in any other.
I would
like to take this opportunity to thank all of you that paid a
visit to our stand at the Servers and Applications Trade
Fair, the main national iSeries event held in the CNIT, Paris
on the 12th-14th October. It
is always rewarding to be able to directly exchange ideas
face to face and discuss approaches to managing the evolution
of information systems. We look forward to meeting
you again at our
series
of monthly Breakfast
sessions throughout
the year.
Best
regards,
Philippe
MAGNE |
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Functional
regression tests are often a moot point in the application
change process. Only a high level of automation can permanently
unblock the situation.
During this breakfast
session, you can attend demonstrations of the various ARCAD
Software suites, with concrete examples of use.
You are warmly invited to attend : the 15th December
2004 from 9am onwards in our Paris office, 4 Rue Lamblardie
75012 PARIS.
Subscribe to this breakfast session
by clicking here :
Online
subscription
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If you already own,
or are in the process of acquiring an IBM
eServer i5 or iSeries, you can benefit from the IBM
Server Proven certificate awarded to our toolset. To find out more
click on the image:
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of page>>
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Even though the clarity of information systems has not always
been top of the agenda, the recent financial scandals
felt throughout
the world (taking Enron in the USA or Parmalat in Italy as prime
examples) will undoubtedly have a marked effect
on software management.
Governments are now showing a real desire to control
the reliability of information supplied by the enterprise.
This in itself is not particularly new. In the banking arena,
fiscal reports (such as the Bafi in France) are regularly sent to
regulators. The Finance
Law of 1990 set up the BVCI
to impose controls on computerized accounting and define archive
and traceability procedures.
But until now, this need has been loosely managed by assessing
the balance between the cost of implementing these control
systems and the penalties incurred.
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What is different today - and is also likely to fundamentally change
the architecture of information systems - is that company heads
can now be held penally responsible and taken to court over
the issue. (SOX in the USA foresees up to 20 years imprisonment for
CEOs and GMs,
and the European Community is already preparing a similar system).
Computing can no longer ignore this trend and must move up to a rigorous
methodology and unambiguous
clarity.
The extent of control and the risks involved make avoidance
no longer an option.
SOX, BVCI, Basel 2 Operational Risk etc., can all be summed up as an ability
to respond to precise technical audits.
While these control principles may look simple on paper, their
implementation can become
complex without an appropriate toolset. Moreover,
audits are not limited to current operations but also to past
ones.
From a computing point of view,
the IT department must be able to justify each step leading
to a result, and rerun its processing if necessary.
This means that backup procedures apply not just to data but to
the corresponding processes as well (programs, CL etc..) .
That is, it is meaningless to execute today's processing on
old data and vice versa.
Furthermore, there must be sufficient information held to
know exactly how to rerun the processes. Either the documentation is
archived
at
the
same
time as
the processing, or a retro-documentation tool is needed
to generate the documentation on demand. Imagine
the volume occupied
if this documentation was not in electronic format
!
ARCAD Software's suites ARCAD-Skipper and ARCAD-Observer provide
the ideal solution to these needs. All changes are made in a secure
and organized
methodology, and clearly identified
versions provide traceability in all circumstances.
In addition, the documentation generated during a change
can be integrated in the modification set itself to preserve
knowledge of previous versions.
The graphical side of ARCAD-Client performs
information searches in real time, and its simplicity of use
makes it accessible outside the engineering domain to auditors and the
like.
As well as managing technical audits,
the ARCAD solutions introduce a solid and secure architecture where
all software changes can be archived
and traced. They therefore fulfil the basics of any quality
procedure.
Often dismissed as an undue restriction, these new laws are actually
a real chance for companies to at last put in place some structured and
professional
management around their information system - the system being
one of their most important assets.
You can bet that this "standards compliance" will eventually
produce a level of quality that is already taken for granted in industrial
processes.
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Copyright © 2004
ARCAD Software, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Drawn into the new
technology era, the IBM i5 – AS/400 platform
is fast changing into a fully integrated/multi-technology enterprise
server.
As reputed specialists in the
iSeries field for over 12 years now, we are following its evolution closer than
ever and have extended our expertise into UNIX, Windows and Linux environments
- in particular by integrating our solutions into the new development environments
Eclipse, WSAD and WDSc. |
So, in line with IBM, we had many new features
to present to you at the
2004 Servers and Applications trade fair including :
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A major enhancement to our Software Configuration Management suite ARCAD-Skipper to
offer practical solutions to the management of multi-platform applications.
Our toolset constitutes a real vector of convergence for multidisciplinary
teams.
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A major improvement to our
ARCAD-Observer suite for documenting existing applications,
now playing a central role in today's context of migration to new technology.
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A major extension to the
ARCAD-Qualifier suite: a regression test robot
to improve both test productivity and application reliability.
The contacts we made during this trade fair confirm
that the ARCAD products are directly in-line with
i5 and assist in the migration towards
new technology. In this increasingly complex domain, our
goal is to present you with simple and precise
solutions.
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