To facilitate management of application parameter configurations, we chose to enter these parameters in the "mold" of managing conventional components such as programs or files.

For this, the first step consists of modeling them, so that a class acts to define structure and behavior in object language. We therefore created the concept of "data type component” (DTC) that bears all the characteristics of a parameter.

For example the DTC type *COUNTRY contains all the information describing the place(s) where the characteristics of a country are stored. This information might be scattered among fields in a record, or among records in different tables.

This "definition" makes it possible to identify DTC components by reading the associated tables, as identified by the type definition.

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Since the beginning of computing, many applications and most software packages have depended heavily on parameters.

While they may be regarded as mere data, parameters have strong involvement with the values processed by applications and on their behavior. Indeed, whether it acts as a rate or a label, the parameter will be treated like all other data and will affect the value of the outcome. However, if it is an activating code, such as a calculation or new function, then the intrinsic behavior of the application could be profoundly disrupted.

As a result, parameter management almost always takes a specific place in the implementation or use of an application and is often the responsibility of a dedicated and specialized team.

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An international provider specializing in the fields of banking and insurance, Fortis is among the 20 most important European financial institutions.

Historically, Fortis Banque France’s banking applications were developed internally and ran on IBM servers under AIX.   The new organization of the banking network resulted in an Enterprise Architecture project and reorganization of the applications. The business line managers decided to implement banking software that runs in OS/400 on the IBM i platform.

To effectively manage the issues of parameter transfer, Fortis Bank adopted ARCAD Software’s DTC (Data Type Components) module.

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DTC (Data Type Component) technology allows us to enter a "data" dimension of software configuration management. The software packages that many information systems employ bring many features to users. However, the use of packaged software can complicate the management of package changes, because it adds a vital parameter management phase. Managing these parameters is often more important than any other phase of a software integration project.

DTC technology simplifies this process by submitting it to the rigors of configuration management and change process automation. In this article, we will demonstrate how using DTC simplifies management of the JD Edwards World software product from Oracle®.

JD Edwards World software includes a set of technical parameters that almost always accompanies any package change. Among all these parameters, we will illustrate the management of parameters associated with "Dream Writers" (we handle all the parameters needed to manage JDE configuration).