Outsourcing and management of code quality

QA on Cobol code

Developments and ProgressNESMA April 2009

Steven Klusener / Han Noé

Cobol Audit Dec 2007

FPA meet de omvang van de functionele

Implementatie

Business

function

Application

Function

(technical) IT

component

RequirementFPA

Business

wish

(Symplified: n:m relations are not shown)


Productiviteit (kosten per eenheid)

ABN Amro Vendor

Product

Uren of Euro'sper functiepunt

Meetpunt: Projectkosten

(aantal Uren of Euro’s)

Meetpunt: Functionele projectomvang

(aantal functiepunten)

Euro‘s

Meetpunt: Product Kwaliteit


What for today?

“Regievoering in applicatie outsourcing behoeft een

constante monitoring van software- & documentatie

kwaliteit”


What for today?

The general picture, from black box to grey box

Progress within ABN AMRO

Discussion


Stability of functionality

Control of maintenance costs

Control of multi-vendor model

No vendor lock-in

Spin-off

Improving negotiation position w.r.t. Vendors

Supporting internal AAB staff in technical issues

Why systematic QA Control?


General picture

Application outsourcing is considered as a

black box, however, non-functional

requirements are relevant as well

A black box model has the risk of vendor

lock-in

However, we do not want a white box

either


General picture: limited control

Limited QA control required, a grey box

QA control based on pre-defined set of standards

Standards formalized in the Cobol standards handbook

According to the contract, the IT-provider must adhere to

the standards


General picture: limited control

Acceptance of projects wrt. software quality is restricted to

agreed set of standards & guidelines

The set of standards need continuous validation and

evolution

Identification of best practices and bad practices <->

standards

Validation of standards & guidelines change proposals by

the Cobol expert team


Traffic safety

Safety on the streets

Traffic rules Legislation

Trafic incidents

Traffic control


Code Quality

Cobol code quality

Cobol standards& guidelines

Cobol expert team

QA review issues,Prod. Incidents

Quality control


Code Quality

Cobol code quality

Cobol standards& guidelines

Cobol expert team

QA review issues,Prod. Incidents

1.Automated scanon standards2.Visual review


Cobol code quality control steps

Automated QA SCAN

ISPW, –> ST –> ET -> Prod

VendorCobol sources

Selection of ‘Bad’ sources

Visual QA REVIEW

Cobol Guidelines

HTML report

Management QA report

QA Review report


Progress within ABNAMRO

Implementation Cobol QA control


Status Cobol Coding rules have been formalized and embedded

into a software delivery process

– At TCS: Cobol Checker and Cobol Checklist

– At AAB: Rules checked on Delta

Partial coverage yet, more complex rules and

guide-lines still have to be formalized with the help of

Cobol experts, input from testing/production issues


Status Cobol

Cobol standards handbook yearly update

Daily Delivery from ISPW of all Cobol promoted from

ST->AT, AT-> ET and ET-> Prod

Delivery in the Cobol analysis environment

Monthly automated check on 50 Cobol standards

Publication automated check results on Website

Access to AAB Subject Matter Experts.

Monthly visual QA reviews by Ordina


Report of automated QA check

QA check new module


Report of automated QA check

New version RE500A

Deviations


Violations of standards in theCobol portfolio

Examples


Violation of standards, detail:

Confusing indentation, ex. EJ830

**** BEPALEN VULLING PAN IF FOUND-TRACK2 AND FOUND-TRACK3

MOVE …

IF DAT2 IN H-DLR-REGEL8A = 'data:'

…

END-IF

MOVE …

IF H-PAN = SPACES

IF VOORLOOPNR IN H-DLR-REGEL9 = '01'

MOVE …

ELSE

IF VOORLOOPNR IN H-DLR-REGEL9A = '01'

…

END-IF

ELSE

MOVE …

END-IF

**** BEPALEN VULLING TRANSACTIENUMMER

IF FOUND-WDRL

…

END-IF.

??


Violation of standards, Statistics:Deviations in new Cobol modules

RULE #LoC #Mod #Sys

cobie014 comp clause 12 3 3

cobst015 perform thru 11 5 4

cobst020 move corresponding 9 2 1

cobst007 merge/sort 6 2 1

cobst013 upon console 4 2 2

cobst85003 date-written entry 2 2 1

cobst85001 author entry 2 2 1

Technology

Outsourcing and management of code quality