IBM redirects AD/Cycle; shift is to smaller, networked platforms - Field Report: CASE

Software Magazine, Sept, 1992 by Steve Polilli

Citing user requirements, IBM has redirected its embattled AD/Cycle computer-aided software engineering (Case) strategy from a mainframe-based plan to one with support for workgroup-based application development on Unix- and OS/2-based local-area networks (LANs).

Following a series of IBM telephone briefings with users, an IBM executive denied that the company had significantly scaled back development of Repository Manager/MVS, the host-only core of the IBM Case framework. But he acknowledged that a small, undisclosed number of developers have been shifted to a project aimed at moving the Repository Manager software to smaller, networked platforms.

"We have always known workgroup [application development] was an important target, it was just a matter of priorities," said Jon Hemming, IBM marketing manager for Programming Systems, Somers, N.Y.

Asked about IBM's intention, announced about six months ago, to next bring out an AS/400 version of Repository Manager, Hemming said: "In the last six months we came to realize after listening to our customers that workgroup computing was moving faster than we thought. We've since reprioritized some of our development to accelerate workgroup support."

He said that principal work on the MVS product will continue unchanged at IBM's Santa Teresa labs in San Jose, Calif., but that some repository developers in the Toronto labs were shifted to the AIX and LAN projects.

"IBM had to face up to this and offer something besides the mainframe repository, largely because of market pressures," said David Sharon, president of Case Associates, Inc., an Oregon City, Ore., market research and consulting firm.

The rollout of products under the revamped Case strategy will not happen overnight, even though IBM will seek considerable help from independent software developers.

IBM's Hemming said that a common set of development tools will be brought out in 1993, first for AIX and "darned soon after, if not at the same time" for OS/2 LANs. The product rollout slated for next year will not offer data model communication between supported tools, he noted. That capability is expected in 1994, he added.

IBM will use a third-party object-oriented database as part of the workgroup solution, but Hemming said that the repository coding will be done by IBM developers. Natasha Krel, program director in the Burlingame, Calif., office of The Meta Group, a Westport, Conn.-based consulting firm, predicted that the Versant ODBMS from Versant Object Technology, Menlo Park, Calif., will provide the underlying object-orientation.

Though some IBM sales representatives have recently recommended to customers a LAN-based repository from InfoSpan Corp., Minneapolis, IBM's Hemming acknowledged that product will not be a foundation for the IBM LAN repository. Hemming would not confirm that the Versant technology has been solected.

Earlier tiffs year, IBM began shipping AIX Case tools bundled into an architecture called the Software Development Environment (SDE). The architecture was based on the SoftBench Case integration framework licensed from Hewlett-Packard Co., Cupertino, Calif., and renamed SDE Workbench/6000. Hemming said Case tools for OS/2 will be drawn from beth the MVS and AIX toolsets.

UNDER HEAVY FIRE

The Meta Group's Krol said IBM must be more careful in choosing tools than it was in selecting the mainframe-based AD/Cycle components. "My concern is that they partner with the right people. They have gone with what they thought was best-of breed, like KnowledgeWare [Inc., Atlanta], when the rest of the industry thought otherwise," she said.

At about the same time IBM unveiled the A/X Case products, Repesitory Manager/MVS came under heavy fire by some users who abandoned the complex software, citing its high cost and lack of immediate value. Widespread publicity surrounding those instances stung IBM, though other users said that the complexity of a central host repository did not detract from its worth.

For those several dozen shops that bought into Repository Manager/ MVS, much of their prepration work is equally valid for a workgroup-based repository, Krol said. She noted that "cleaning and scrubbing data for a repository has value no matter what the environment. They are also gaining valuable experience and the skills are entirely transferrable," she added.

Vendors of competitive host-based repositories charged that IBM's move