Environnement de développement unifié pour différents langages de programmation

Bedag Informatique SA modernise son environnement de développement et réuni le développement de C# et de Delta ADS dans un framework .NET sous Microsoft Visual Studio.

Un environnement de contrôle et de développement uniforme pour les différents langages de programmation est l’objectif de nombreuses entreprises. Bedag Informatik AG (Bedag) a maîtrisé cette étape en standardisant ses processus de développement et en assurant ainsi un développement d’application efficace et pérenne.

Développement (continuel) de Viacar

Depuis de nombreuses années, Bedag développe et maintient l’application Viacar avec les solutions de Delta Software Technology GmbH (Delta). De nombreuses études de cas à l’échelle de Viacar ainsi que diverses exigences spécifiques aux cantons ont été développées et générées avec Delta ADS.

De nouvelles parties de l’application sont développées en C# pour .NET en utilisant Microsoft Visual Studio. Afin de ne pas devoir utiliser inutilement des processus et des environnements de développement différents, Bedag avait l’exigence de standardiser le développement de C# et du Delta COBOL dans un seul environnement de développement.

Utilisation de Delta ADS on Visual Studio

Delta a fourni pour cela le plugin « Delta ADS on Visual Studio ». Après un test réussi, Bedag a décidé d’utiliser le plugin Delta ADS on Visual Studio. Les programmes Delta peuvent maintenant être maintenus directement sous Visual Studio et le code COBOL approprié est généré. Cela a permis de normaliser et de coordonner les processus de contrôle.

En utilisant un environnement de développement ainsi que l’intégration transparente du plugin Delta ADS, les développeurs de Bedag n’ont plus besoin de passer d'un environnement de développement à un autre. La mise à disposition de cette interface utilisateur uniforme et moderne permet le développement efficace et pérenne de l’application.

A propos de Bedag Informatique SA

Affichant un chiffre d’affaires dépassant les 100 millions de francs, Bedag est une entreprise de prestations informatiques leader en Suisse. Avec ses 400 collaboratrices et collaborateurs – dont 27 apprenants, elle dispose d’un vaste savoir-faire spécialisé dans le domaine de l’informatique. Ses activités-clés portent sur le développement, la maintenance et l’exploitation de solutions informatiques toujours cruciales pour le bon fonctionnement d’une entreprise. Bedag permet à ses clients de bénéficier d’une informatique économique et conviviale. Le réseau de ses centres de calcul hautement sécurisés et de ses différents sites à Berne, Aarau, Delémont, Genève, Lausanne et Wettingen lui assure une présence régionale forte. Ses clients sont principalement des administrations publiques et des organismes parapublics, des entreprises du secteur de la santé et des assurances, ainsi que des organisations des Nations Unies. Bedag a été fondée en 1990 et appartient au canton de Berne.

Viacar : l’application pour les services des automobiles Suisses.

Viacar est un logiciel pour les services des automobiles actuellement utilisé par les six cantons d’Argovie,
Lucerne, Schaffhouse, Vaud, Zoug et Zurich. Les cantons gèrent ainsi environ 900 utilisateurs et environ 2,5 millions de véhicules et bateaux. Sur le site d’Aarau, Bedag et son équipe assurent la maintenance et le développement futur de Viacar.

Empruntez vous aussi ce chemin

Si vous souhaitez également standardiser votre environnement de développement et vos processus sous Visual Studio, nous vous proposons une version d’essai du plug-in Delta ADS.
Si vous n’utilisez pas Visual Studio, nous proposons également des plug-ins pour Eclipse, IBM RDz, Micro Focus EDz, Compuware Topaz et autres environnements de développement basés sur Eclipse.

Nous serions heureux de vous montrer les possibilités d'optimiser votre développement avec Delta ADS. Veuillez nous contacter directement.

Bedag relies on Delta ADS on Visual Studio Bedag Informatique SA modernise son environnement de développement et réuni le développement de C# et de Delta ADS dans un framework .NET sous Microsoft Visual Studio.

>> Détails

A large insurer has renovated a key component of his core application with the solutions from Delta Software Technology (Delta). Delta's AMELIO-Tools for automated analyses, code clean-up and re-documentation ensure a future-proof application infrastructure and an easy know-how transfer to the application heirs.

In the 1980s the insurer's IT developed a COBOL application for the screen control. Until now this forms an important part of the application infrastructure. Since its initial development this part of the application and the entire application have evolved: Extensions have been added over and over again. The screen control has been maintained by several generations of developers. Different programming styles and COBOL versions have been used for the further development. Moreover, the screen control has been optimized according to former criteria. These criteria are no longer applicable. However, over time all of these measures have greatly affected understandability and maintainability.

The screen control has proven itself over the years. For this reason, it was decided to make this part of the established and reliable application fit for the future to preserve the proven application logic and to ensure the investments effected. The improvement of the application should be carried out safely and with as less effort as possible.

Fit for the future

For making the application fit, the following measures should be implemented:

• Clean-up and upgrade (refactoring) of the source code, so that it will be understandable and maintainable again and that changes and extensions can be implemented efficiently.
• Creating a technical documentation to better understand what the application does and how it works.
• Knowledge transfer about the application and its functionality to new developers.

A manual implementation of the measures would have been risky and inefficient:

• Efforts and risks could not be estimated.
• The daily business would have been disturbed due to a strong resource commitment.
• Massive testing efforts, to ensure the correctness of the changes.

The insurer has chosen the automated solution with Delta’s tools and was able to avoid the problems of a manual approach.

Usage of the Delta AMELIO family

To solve the task, Delta suggested a multi-level approach with the following elements:

• Code clean-up
• Replacement of VORELLE
• In-depth source analyses
• Refactoring
• Re-documentation
• Workshops for the knowledge transfer

Analysis and clean-up of the sources

During the first step, the AMELIO toolset was configured regarding the customer-specific programming styles, name conventions, etc. General clean-ups, like the removal of redundant code and the standardisation of syntax variants, were implemented by using the AMELIO CleanUp-Factory.

The analysis with AMELIO Logic Discovery identified what the application does and how it works. From these analysis results Delta derived suggestions for a tailor-made refactoring. These suggestions, as well as other requirements of the customer, were evaluated and coordinated in close cooperation to build the customer-specific factory.
With this tailor-made solution the refactoring was performed in an audit-proof way.

Workshop for the knowledge transfer

The results of the analyses and the refactoring were presented in a workshop and thus new employees were trained to work with the implementation of the screen control. Further possible improvements of the application were defined. The employees benefitted from the functionality of AMELIO Logic Discovery when implementing these improvements. They gained deep insight in the sources and were able to build their know-how about the application.

Final analysis and re-documentation

Finally, these sources were analysed again by AMELIO Logic Discovery and a documentation of the entire application was created automatically. With the help of this documentation and the interactive presentation in AMELIO Logic Discovery, first maintenance cases have been implemented quick and efficiently.

Highlights and benefits of the Delta solution

The clean-up and refactoring were performed by a factory specifically configured for this purpose:

• Automated - The changes were implemented automatically and without manual interventions. The strict process ensured that the results are always comprehensible and reproducible. In this way, efforts and risks of the project have been minimized.
• Audit-proof - All changes to the code have been documented automatically. The complete automation and the change log provide security for internal and external auditors.
• Tailor-made - The necessary code changes were agreed with the customer and adapted to his requirements and company policies.
• Documented - A documentation of the application was created automatically.
• Knowledge Building - The knowledge about the application and its functioning was regained.
• Without footprints, without vendor lock-in - No additional runtime components or new products have to be installed or licensed. In addition, third-party tools, such as the decision table generator VORELLE, could been removed.
• Short freeze phase - The development and maintenance of the application could be continued in parallel without hindrance.
• Minimal test effort - Using Meta-level testing, not all changed programs had to be tested, but only the change rules using a small test set.

Goal achieved …

The customer has managed to make his application fit for the future with little effort and low risk. With the gained experience it is now possible to decide how to make further (complex) applications fit for the future, while reusing the factory.

When will you make this step?

You have COBOL, PL/I or Delta ADS applications that have proven themselves and you want to make sure they are fit for the future?

Get in touch with us and find out what is possible with an automated approach.

Insurer makes important core application fit for the future A large insurer has renovated a key component of its core application with the solutions from Delta Software Technology. Deltas AMELIO-Tools for automated analyses, code clean-up and re-documentation ensure a future-proof application infrastructure as an easy know-how transfer to the application heirs.

>> Détails

A selection of case studies from Public Administrations and general trade companies using Delta products and services:

• Bedag Informatik AG - Bedag modernizes its development environment and combines the development in C# and Delta ADS in a .NET framework under Microsoft Visual Studio.
• Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann –  The leading German steel producer Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (HKM) has selected SCORE Adaptive Bridges. Delta's generative development tool will be used in the “Online Steelworks” project to automate service development. The "Online Steelworks" application controls and administers the core steel production process.
• RDW – gained future reliability and reduced costs by a full IT modernisation in 3 steps: optimisation of the development processes and off-loading from mainframe to PC, removing all platform dependencies and modernisation of the application architecture, error-free platform and database change.
• Schorch – Schorch has benefited several times from the sustainability and long-term feasibility of platform-neutral development with Delta products. The migration of the production management from Fujitsu BS2000/OSD mainframe to Microsoft Windows took place “at the push of a button” and provided the expected cost-reduction. In an earlier project Schorch has already seen how applications can be successfully modernised: by the automatic service enablement of strategically important business functions without changing the existing legacy applications.
• B+S Banksysteme - Has one of the largest application systems that has been developed with Delta tools. In April 2012 B+S started to introduce the pre-release of ADS 6 in order to again increase the efficiency and quality of their software development and maintenance.

B+S Banksysteme AG (B+S) has one of the largest application systems that has been developed with Delta tools. In April 2012 B+S started to introduce the pre-release of ADS 6 in order to again increase the efficiency and quality of their software development and maintenance.

Generative Development with ADS

B+S successfully uses the generative development system Delta ADS for the development of their products already for decades. More than 300 million lines of code are generated for four completely different platforms every year. "For more than 20 years now we successfully use Delta tools to develop and maintain our large scale and complex banking solutions. The excellent implementation of the principle of generative software development by all Delta tools enables us to develop our software products platform independently and with the highest possible degree of automation. Thereby we meet our customers’ demands on reliability and quality.", says Wilhelm Berger, CFO at B+S.

Experiences with the new ADS 6

In April 2012, B+S started to introduce the pre-release of ADS 6. Oswald Klackl, head of architecture & quality management at B+S, about the new functions: "The new ADS 6 enables us to further improve the efficiency and quality of our software development and maintenance. For example, new functions for the detailed documentation and description of the generating process help us to securely and fast perform changes and enhancements on our large scale and complex applications."

About B+S Banksysteme AG

B+S Banksysteme Aktiengesellschaft (B+S) supports banks, data centres and core banking manufacturers with customizable standard software and with powerful, flexible and scalable application packages for financial management. The products of the company which is listed at the Frankfurt stock exchange are completely platform-independent and due to their standard interfaces they can flexibly be integrated. They are multi-client and multi-currency capable as well as multilingual.

Further information on B+S: www.bs-ag.com (website only available in german)

More about ADS 6

You want to benefit from the new functions of ADS 6 as well? Then order your update now.