Teaching old dogs new tricks with Rational Developer for System i

Teaching old dogs new tricks: Successful
steps in rolling out Rational Developer for
POWER for IBM i and AIX
Kenny Smith
Principal Consultant, Strongback Consulting
kenny.smith@strongback.us
PWR 1214
© 2013 IBM Corporation

About Us: Strongback Consulting
 IBM Advanced Business Partner
– Rational, WebSphere, Lotus, Information Management SVP certified
– Strongly focused on Enterprise Modernization and application lifecycle management
– Key Industries Served: Finance, Insurance, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Government
– Rational Design Partner for HATS and other Rational enterprise modernization technologies
Discover us at:
http://www.strongback.us
Subscribe to our blog at
http://blog.strongbackconsulting.com
Socialize with us on Facebook & LinkedIn
http://www.facebook.com/StrongbackConsulting
http://www.linkedin.com/company/290754

Agenda
 Planning to plan
 Rollout guidelines
 Executive sponsorship
 Installation & licensing
 Customized workspace
 Training
 Mentoring
 Rollout anti-patterns
 Question & Answer
3

Avoiding “Shelfware”
4
Damages your budget
Hurts the sellers credibility
Confuses the developer
Frustrates the executives
who bought it

Planning out your implementation
 Establish and document the value proposition you want
– What are we licensed for?
– Who will use what product?
 Gather input from all your stakeholders
– Technical team (devs), IT managers, IT Sysadmins
– Executive management (CFO, COO, CEO, VP of IT, etc)
– Your IBM Business Partner & IBM Software Rep
 Create your implementation plan with checklists & milestones
– How does this hook into our desktop policies (if you have one)?
– What is our compilation, promotion, and deployment plan?
– How will this hook into our SCM / ALM?
 Create a collaboration plan
– Internal Quickr site, wiki, sharepoint, etc. for FAQs, whitepapers, Redbooks, and a GLOSSARY of terms
– Define escalation communication process internally, with your BP, and with IBM
 Define ROI metrics
5

The need for executive sponsorship
 These are the guys whose budgets are paying for the licenses
 To get the ROI they desire, they need to be involved
 They also can clear hurdles to your implementation
 Only these guys can really mandate the product usage
6

Integration with Source Code Management
 Are you using version control?
– if not… are you planning to? (please say that you are for your own sake!)
 Is there an Eclipse plugin available?
 Does the plugin work with the version you intend to deploy?
 Do you need promotion and deployment support (not just SCM, compile, & build)?
– Have you heard of Rational Team Concert by chance?
7
IBM Power Systems
Integrate
Applications
Optimize
Infrastructure
Empower
People
Unify
Teams

Understand your licensing
 Frequent rebranding & renaming over the years
– Get your vocabulary straight before you implement
 Two general models:
– Authorized User: requires a license file to be applied to the developer desktop
– Floating User: requires a Rational License Key Server
– Fixed Term Licenses
 Can be sold as standalone products
– Rational Developer for AIX and Linux
– Rational Developer for i
 Can be sold as Packages
– RDi Java Edition (formerly POWER Tools for i)
– Rational Developer for i for SOA Construction
– etc.
8

Getting the software
1. Get the software from IBM Passport Advantage
– Know what parts to download
download what you need, skip what you don’t
– Get with your IBM BP or Software Rep to manage access
– *Also available from your hardware vendor through AAS
2. Get the licenses from the Rational License Key Center
– Separate site, separate downloads, separate credentials
– See #1 above
Passport Advantage http://www-01.ibm.com/software/howtobuy/passportadvantage/pao_customers.htm
Rational License Key Center http://www-01.ibm.com/software/rational/support/licensing/toIntraware.html
9

Installation
 Once you know what you’ve got and what your usage is, then you can
install
 Single products for small teams
–Manual installation is easy
 Packaged products for teams >10 people
–Manual installation becomes a major obstacle
–You must install it the same for everyone to have consistent results
–Use scripting, the Package Utility, Tivoli Endpoint Manager, or MS tools to roll
out
 Don’t forget the Rational License Key Server!
10

Manually installing with Installation Manager (v 9.0)
11

Customized packaging with Package Utility
 Part of “Rational Enterprise Deployment”
 Can combine multiple products into one
installation image
 Example: RDiSOA version 8.5
– Rational Developer for i
– Rational Business Developer
– HATS
– IBM Data Studio (which is FREEEEE!!!)
– RTC Plugin
 After building a package, use Installation
Manager to record response files
 Run a silent (scripted) install using these
response files
 Plug the installation script into your desktop
automation tooling
12

Deploying a customized workspace
 A workspace is a directory of configuration meta data, project data, and project folders
 Creates a consistent experience across your development team
 Why should everyone recreate the same data?
13

Ideas for content in the customized workspace
 AIX / Power users
– Set the LPEX Editor to use vi, or emacs
 IBM i, AS/400, iSeries users
– Set LPEX Editor to SEU mode
 Preset common user preference based on your team’s culture
 Include source code examples for training session
 Include training materials as projects
14

Ideas for content in the customized workspace
 Preconfigure all connections to systems & LPAR’s that they may use
– Remote Systems Explorer, connections, filters
– DB2 Connections
– Other RDBMS Systems
15
Preconfigure
filters
Setup known
RDBMS
connections
ahead of time

In the customized workspace
Include common programming
routines as snippets
Boilerplate code can also be put
into templates
 Templates work with code
assist, and the editor’s context
 Snippets allow you to place
variables which you define
when you drag / drop into
source
16

Would you operate this without training?
18

Your IDE has MORE instrumentation than most aircraft
19
Don’t skimp on training!!!

Creating a Training Plan
 Customized training is always best
–Modules should fit your team’s usage scenario
 Training should start and end with SCM in mind
 On site vs. remote
–On site interaction is best if possible
–Remote for geographically dispersed workers
–Consider vendors who can support remote classroom environments
 Schedule your team members in advance
–plan around vacations, etc.
 Have a post –training plan
–How do I on-board new members of my team?
–What happens if we have questions after training is over?20

Onsite mentoring: after the training
 Helps to cement the knowledge
gained after training
 Creates social incentive to learn to
the tool
 Mentor / Consultant can help you
troubleshoot real scenarios
 Use to cultivate your internal
champions and power users21

Team Collaboration
 Setup a team site for everyone to post questions, comments, and suggestions
– IBM Quickr, Connections, Wiki, Blog, TeamRoom, Sharepoint Site, etc
– Email alone will NOT cut it!
 Things to include
22

Team Collaboration – What to include in your site
Training material (presentations &
lab exercises)
Redbooks
Bookmarks (links to helpful
websites)
Escalation matrix
Programming
guidelines, standards, etc
FAQs
Discussion forums
23

Metrics
 Define your success criteria
 Make sure its measurable before and after
 Snapshot those current metrics
 Collect on a regular interval
 Analyze and improve the process
 Rinse & Repeat
24
How often are floating licenses checked out?
How many people are contributing to the team room?
How many people have been to training?
Who is using System I Access to access SEU/PDM?
Examples

Next step: UNINSTALL your terminal emulator
As legend has it, after
his men got
ashore, Cortés burned
the ships that brought
them. He wanted his
men to understand fully
that their only option
was to win or die – there
would be no retreat.
Knowing their options
were limited now, the
Spanish army would
fight harder and with
more determination.
25

Definition: Anti-patterns
A pattern, or series
of methods, used in
social or business
operations or
software engineering
that may be
commonly used but
is ineffective and/or
counterproductive in
practice
27

Rollout Anti-patterns: Purchase the software and do
nothing else
This is …
A. The likelihood your users will adopt it..
B. Your return on investment..
C. Chance it won’t become shelfware..
28

Rollout Anti-patterns: Installing on ancient PC’s
 You cannot compare the IDE to the performance of a terminal emulator
 Insufficient disk space – multi-gigabyte download of software eats up disk
 4GB RAM minimum (because we run apps other than the IDE at the same time)
 Quad core is ideal (see above)
29
FACT: the cost of a faster
PC is cheaper than paying
someone to sit and wait
on a slower one to
respond

Rollout Anti-patterns: Letting users install it themselves
30
Can you say goat rodeo??
• Different install directories
• Forgotten license files
• Different release levels
• Different patch levels
• Installed into the wrong
package group
• Insufficient access
• Insufficient disk space

Rollout Anti-patterns: Letting Bob the Elder teach
Programming
skills
Product
Knowledge
Adult
Education
Experience
31
• Teaching requires skills beyond just product knowledge or
system knowledge – it requires presentation skills, public
speaking, humor, etc.
• Do not assume that your best RPG guy can pick it up, learn
it, and teach the rest of the staff

Rollout Anti-patterns: Forgetting about SCM
 SCM = Source Code Management (a.k.a. version control)
 ALM = Application Lifecycle Management
 Copying files between libraries is NOT version control!
 Users will go back to the terminal if they have to check in/out of source
–and there they will stay…and stay…and stay…
32

34
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2013. All rights reserved. The information
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