Change Traceability with Endevor and Rally
Quick Win by Connecting Changes to Upstream Value Management
Understanding the reason for a code change should be easy.
A core principle of Agile development is harnessing change for the customer’s benefit. Therefore, a fundamental requirement is to provide a clear link between code changes taking place and upstream stories and dependencies that define the benefit.
Now mainframe teams can leverage this level of visibility with Change Traceability. Featured as one of 15 use cases in the DevOps Modernization Roadmap [eBook] [interactive site], Change Traceability offers a 3 out of 5 Return on Investment and is identified as a Quick Win.
Developers are responsible for ensuring the quality of their deliverables and providing seamless visibility to upstream requirements is a low-risk way of accelerating the delivery process.
Awareness of the reason for the code change throughout the lifecycle keeps the team focused on the right priorities. For example, they can prioritize changes relating to an impending regulatory requirement over longstanding technical debt changes.
Note, while this article refers to Rally, Broadcom’s market-leading enterprise Agile management solution, the approach works similarly with other value stream management (VSM) tools like Jira, Planview, etc.
The adoption of Change Traceability should be considered within the broader set of modernization capabilities. For example, Git is a key priority among many modernization champions so you may want to consider adopting Change Traceability while introducing Git via the Hybrid Git use case. Combining use cases demonstrates an organizational commitment to modernization and the long-term vitality of the platform.
Adopting Change Traceability offers:
- Greater business agility by clearly aligning with organizational priorities
- Reduced mean time to resolution (MTTR) when debugging problems with direct links to artifacts
- Productivity boost by empowering developers and reducing context switching
- Improved compliance via audit trails
- Better team management w/ historical context for changes
ENVIRONMENTS
Change Traceability is possible for any Endevor environment and for any developer interface:
By specifying a Change Control ID tag (CCID), ideally with comments, developers can relate work on specific versions of source back to artifacts in Rally. This is possible whether using ISPF or a modern IDE like Visual Studio Code. Regardless of the interface, traceability from the changeset to the Rally artifact is established automatically. Changeset data can be monitored on Team Boards and other dashboard widgets for complete visibility of work-in-progress. Easily link from the Team Board to the code change.
For applications using enterprise Git servers like GitHub, GitLab, BitBucket, Azure Repos (this includes both the Git Native scenario using Team Build and the Hybrid Git scenario using Bridge for Git):
PRO TIP
Beyond Git, combine the Change Traceability use case with the ticketing use cases, Change Sync and Change Approvals (see Roadmap). Doing so enables a quick win while allowing additional time to adopt these Tactical, IT service management (ITSM)-oriented use cases for universal visibility of changes.
NEXT STEPS
Connecting mainframe developers to the Agile world should be a short-list priority. Provide developers with seamless visibility into the stories, dependencies, teams, and projects related to their tasks.
If you haven’t already, consider deploying Endevor Web Services as a key enabler of your modernization journey. This article explains why it’s so important:
Endevor Web Services, the Modernization LaunchPad
If you’d like more information about Change Traceability or any of the modernization use cases, feel free to request a consultation with a Modernization Advisor. They’re ready to discuss your specific needs and priorities.
Read other Endevor-based modernization articles on the Modern Mainframe blogsite.
And other helpful resources are available on the Endevor website.
