Testing smooths path to integration in the new economy

South African companies are increasingly integrating their legacy systems with new applications in order to compete in the e-business marketplace of today. Testing is a vital part of this integration process.

"In the New Economy, the contemporary business model relies on the fast and reliable transfer of data. International markets and competitive pressures have removed the luxury of off-hours, downtime and overnight data transfers. Information must be instantly, universally available and real-time current," says Marianne Prins, account executive at Compuware SA.

One of the greatest challenges when companies try to leverage their mainframe applications for e-business is error management throughout the process.

"Application integration is certainly something we`re seeing a lot more of," says Theresa Lanowitz, research director in the Applications Development Group at US research firm GartnerGroup.

According to Lanowitz, there is an increase in the number of organisations integrating multiple types of packages, and the first question they are asking is whether or not they need to test. "Yes, they do need to test unless they want to run the risk of integration they`re doing not working," she says.

"The demand for quality has moved up dramatically," adds Prins. "In the New Economy, saying: `Let`s build something, throw it out there and fix it when it doesn`t work just won`t fly."

So how does an organisation make testing a bigger part of its development process? The best way, according to analysts, vendors and end users, is to start early and test throughout the entire life cycle.

One solution which helps in the testing process is Abend-AID E-Business Edition, based on the reliable Abend-AID tool, with e-business extensions added by Compuware to meet customer` needs.

The solution manages and supports e-business systems by reducing production downtime and meeting service level agreements. The product not only helps to minimise costs, reduce errors and speed deployment, it can lessen the impact of new technologies on existing legacy infrastructures, while minimising the need for specialist expertise. It also speeds up the integration of legacy systems and e-business applications.

"Abend-AID E-Business Edition will prove invaluable for developers who are getting legacy systems online," says Prins. "The solution provides developers with diagnostic information that helps pinpoint problems and suggests corrective actions to resolve problems quickly."

In addition to, and to help in the detection and interpretation of integration errors, Abend-AID E-Business Edition functions as built-in expertise for programmers for MQSeries in batch, IMS and CICS environments, clearly defines reason, return and error codes, identifies the true cause of problems, specifies corrective action, clearly defines API structure, reduces resolution time, and provides built-in expertise.

Using Abend-AID E-Business Edition, programmers and developers are able to detect, analyse and diagnose problems automatically in applications that use IBM`s MQSeries messaging CICS Web Interface.

"For more than 20 years, thousands of customers have relied on Abend-AID to resolve errors in their most important applications," says Prins. "With Abend-AID E-Business Edition, we are meeting companies` needs to implement new technologies so they can leverage their legacy systems effectively and efficiently."