BMC AMI DevX vs. IBM CICS Transaction Server

I love these tools! However, my company has not yet transitioned from SCLM to a modern repository, and this is causing most of our developers to remain within TSO for all their development. It's been a slow adoption up to this point, but we are moving toward more modernization this year and next, so with any luck, we'll see usage pick up. Success depends on the speed at which your management is willing to move.

Incentivized

IBM CICS Transaction Server is multi-decades proven transaction server which is very scalable, very secured, easy to use, has good transactional capabilities, works well all other mainframe resources such as Db2, languages on IBM mainframe, has access control capabilities in terms of who can access the transaction for read mode vs update mode, etc.

Incentivized

• The tool I use is fairly intuitive. It doesn't take long to be using it full time.
• Changing the layout/view is fairly easy. This allows it to fit individual preferences.
• It is helpful to be able to view specific windows in full screen. Usually, I have it set up to view multiple windows, but sometimes, I just want to view one window in full-screen mode.
• the debug utility is very useful. Place stopping points is easy and one can set parameters as to when you stop at a line of code. Changing the data on the fly is easy and usefull. The interface is easy to use and make sense.

Incentivized

• De facto standard in the legacy enterprise
• Multiplatform connection
• Native connection with DB2

Incentivized

• Download source code plug-in on Azure DevOps to allow downloading prod version even if it's not in the assignment.
• Publishing Test Results on Azure DevOps from Total Test plugin
• Integration with DevEnterprise in Workbench and GenAI capabilities for enhance code analysis (Accross multiple programs/applications)

Incentivized

• Would like to see the transaction response matrix on the average transaction response among all requests.
• Would like to see GUI tool to be able to see currently running transactions
• Would like to be able to get the details of where the cics transaction was triggered from

Incentivized

This is a very good range of tools that we use daily to maintain our programs

Incentivized

9 as it gives good smooth experience for all development tasks. Can be improved a little.

Incentivized

The tool is very reliable and we have had very few cases where we have had to contact support.

Incentivized

With one exception, we did not observe any slowdown in development activity when using the AMI DEVX Code DEBug tool.

Incentivized

Support has been amazing compared to Optim. Further, new features are very regular with File-AID - I can't remember the last time Optim had a significant update. File-AID support is very receptive to feature requests and reported bugs, including sending out hotfixes quickly.

Incentivized

The learning phase is relatively easy to implement.

Incentivized

The installation teams for these products have never complained about any difficulties during the integration of this range of tools into our IT system.

Incentivized

The names may have changed over the years, but anyone who has been around for a while will recognize them. For Software Configuration Management, I have used TSO/ISPF/SCLM, Panvalet, ChangeMan, Librarian, Endevor, and now Code Pipeline. All of them met the basic requirements. All of them had their advantages and disadvantages. Code Pipeline, however, stands head and shoulders above the rest in simplicity, completeness, effectiveness, efficiency, and elegance.

Incentivized

There is no comparison, in practice, the possibility of using the latest programming languages but, above all, the databases can be different and more modern than DL1.

Incentivized

• Possitive impact. It is main product suite to enable devops in the mainframe applications team. All developers use these on day-to-day work.
• Negative impact: Recent usability issues caused disappointment in the application teams. It became hard motivate the development community to increase usage.

Incentivized

• It has allowed us to use our decades old code and still continue to support the business
• Allows us to have faster time to market and modernize our systems
• We can still continue to use our legacy resources for modern systems

Incentivized