Recently, I received a query from a Project Manager - could I setup a training tool that could help application developers pick up site-specific commands. This was a major problem as his team is new and had limited experience on the application system being supported.
In the mainframe, this challenge is common with all the third-party and in-house utilities being added to the system. To address this, developers have two choices. First, they can either pick up the application manual but more often than not it is not available and sifting through the information in the manual could be quite a challenge. Second, they can search through existing programs and copy the syntax. The issue with this second approach is that this would not provide the complete view of the command syntax and may even perpertuate issues with mistakes being copied a couple of times better.
At first, my first suggestion was to create a set of ISPF help panels that the developers can invoke. This is a very viable solution with the availability of ISPF Tutorial functionality. But there is one small issue with the approach. Invoking the tool would mean leaving the Edit session and requires the need for Cut and Paste to copy the code syntax.
The solution
I realised that there is an even better solution more suited to this need - the ISPF Model facility. ISPF developers are familiar with this ISPF models as this provides syntax for common ISPF services/commands. I rely on this heavily when I was new to ISPF programming but have not used this recently. I remembered how quickly I was able to learn the command syntax which fits the requirement for this training tool request.
Developming the tool is easy. It involves extending an existing ISPF selection panels and the creation of new ISPF panels and skeletons (which are templates containing the command syntax). With this, the tool was developed in just two days and can easily be maintained by any developer.
The benefit
After introducing the site-specific ISPF models, the onboarding time for new member was drastically reduced. The feedback was that it was easy to use and contains all the information needed by the developer.
There were also unexpected benefits from implementing the tool. Even the experienced developers had been more productive and allow them to focus more on other value-adding activities as there was less time spent on answering queries on command syntax from new members.
The tool also provided a means to introduce coding standards. It was done by extending the command templates to include common error-trapping code stubs.
If you are interested with this project and want to know more, send us your enquiry and we can provide you the details for a minimal fee.
