z/OS, Git, and VS Code: The Bottom Line
How Legal & General is revolutionizing the mainframe developer experience while managing risk
“A sudden, radical, or complete change”
This is one of the many definitions of revolution but in the world of mission-critical mainframe systems, this concept doesn’t fly.
“A changeover in use or preference especially in technology”.
Mainframe developers have long preferred a combination of ISPF with source code managers like Endevor. While these tools have withstood the test of time, a real revolution is now underway. How mainframe leaders approach this ‘changeover’ may impact the long-term health and vitality of their mainframe applications.
The world outside of mainframe, from cloud development to distributed to mobile, has largely settled on Visual Studio Code and Git, complemented with automated DevOps toolchains (code scanning, test automation, CI/CD pipelines, etc.), as the optimal developer experience.
Why? The next generation of talent knows these tools/processes, is highly productive with them, and sees them as career table stakes. Adopting this framework results in an improved flow state, increased delivery velocity and quality, streamlined recruiting and onboarding, and, ultimately, happier developers. In addition, CDEs and AI code assist tools based on this framework are fast emerging.
But how do you get there from here? How do you introduce hybrid IT tools and processes without it feeling like “a sudden, radical, or complete change” to those unfamiliar with them? The affinity developers have for their tools of the trade is strong. Like those used by master chefs or accomplished artists, these tools are part of their professional identity so changing them requires a thoughtful approach to the cultural aspects of change.
How should we adopt hybrid IT tools and processes?
Customers often ask how to modernize application development so we published a guide featuring 15 use cases covering a range of possibilities. This set was born from our Open-first approach in which we strive to provide maximum flexibility, based on each customer’s operating environment, staffing situation, and priorities.
Our guidance for Endevor customers is to deploy Endevor Web Services because it enables the adoption of many of these use cases in a risk-managed way.
What’s the Bottom Line?
For customers interested in modernizing the developer experience, our guidance is to begin by adopting the Hybrid Git use case.
Disclaimer: To our knowledge, Hybrid Git is only an option for Endevor customers, thanks to the award-winning Endevor Bridge for Git. A bonus for deploying Bridge for Git is that it enables many other high-value use cases highlighted below.
In the Hyrid Git scenario, a developer uses either Git or native Endevor. Developers choose which tool to use: a veteran programmer can use native Endevor while a new-to-mainframe colleague uses Git, even when working on the same application. This level of flexibility is only possible due to Bridge for Git which maintains a synchronized source control mirror in the enterprise Git server with the main code repository residing in Endevor.
Why Hybrid Git?
Version control is the foundation of software development. In the digital age, an organization’s codebase is its crown jewel and should be treated as such. However, despite the claims of some cloud vendors, moving source code is an inherently risky undertaking. Hybrid Git unlocks the value of Git without lift-and-shift risk: what we refer to as risk-managed modernization.
While the value of Git is well-documented (see IDC’s Git for Mainframe Infobrief, Git for Mainframe: Back to the Future, Git for Mainframe FAQ), there are 3 primary categories of value.
1) IT-wide Standard
A recent Stack Overflow survey found that 94% of developers use Git. Rather than having one version control standard for the mainframe and another for the rest of IT, Hybrid Git enables mainframe teams to adopt Git without “a sudden, radical, or complete change”. Having a common version control standard has many benefits:
- Unlocks a vast talent pool, including internal transfers
- Accelerates the onboarding of new-to-mainframe talent
- Aligning with hybrid IT provides a common language, workflows, etc. (i.e., helps remove the mainframe team from the silo)
2) ‘Distributed’ development paradigm (aka parallel, collaborative)
Born from the need to support a large number of developers working on the same open source project concurrently (i.e., Linux), Git enables developers to work in isolation with conflict-free merges. This approach offers great value with large, complex mainframe applications as well.
3) Launchpad for Other Modernization Use Cases
As mentioned earlier, maintaining source code in Git opens up a wide range of additional use cases:
- Code scanning — scan code changes automatically to find security vulnerabilities using pipeline-integrated static analysis tooling and other techniques (e.g., SAST, DAST, SCA)
- Code reviews — formalize code review via Pull/Merge Request mechanisms in the enterprise Git server
- Change traceability — trace changes made to mainframe code back to upstream Agile artifacts (user stories, defects, etc)
- Modern IDEs — provide access to developer-friendly tools like VS Code and CDEs, powered by Code4z, or even older Eclipse interfaces with full remote access to z/OS and mainframe SCM (watch VS Code with Git demo; VS Code with native Endevor demo)
- Native Git — use Git version control directly as the main repo for specific apps, and not via an interface to traditional SCM; mainframe-specific functions like build & deploy delegated to point solutions (i.e., Team Build)
Hybrid Git addresses the challenge of how to build Git expertise among those currently unfamiliar with it without creating undue disruption and distress — it enables them to build skills over time. BTW, the Git for Mainframe Cheat Sheet shares basic Git workflow concepts by mapping them to the traditional model.
Case Study: Legal and General
Following major regulatory changes, Legal & General conducted a comprehensive portfolio review which confirmed the strategic value of their mainframe applications to the business. As a result, leadership initiated a project to modernize and accelerate the mainframe application development process with a special focus on the developer experience (DevX).
Recognizing that the biggest challenges would be the cultural aspects of change, they conducted numerous design thinking workshops from the outset to build developer empathy.
One of the key findings was that, due to the mainframe team being siloed from the rest of the organization, developers “didn’t know what good looked like”. They didn’t know the possibilities of modern IDEs, or code scanning, or shift-left testing, or parallel development. To gain buy-in, education would be required.
For many of the reasons illustrated above, L&G chose the Hybrid Git use case which led to the deployment of Endevor Bridge for Git. Once deployed, they added the Developer Build use case with the deployment of Team Build. This enabled L&G to educate the mainframe team on modern DevOps practices without completely disrupting the existing processes and team productivity.
While L&G has had many partners on its journey, including Kyndryl and TCS, project lead Bharghava Vamsi Bhogireddy (Vamsi) explained that Bridge for Git and Team Build were the biggest factors in the project’s success. They addressed the critical need to modernize while simultaneously addressing the all-important cultural needs of the team.
The project, known as Impala, was recently recognized with the prestigious CMG Impact Award for Innovation. Yes, a mainframe DevX project won an award for innovation!
Congratulations to the Legal & General team for prioritizing the developer experience and proactively addressing culture change. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership as the modernization journey continues!
