PathPoint© Software
Understand How Your Mainframe Applications Really Work

A Better Way Understand and Maintain Legacy Mainframe Apps

“1 Hour with PathPoint, 40 Hours Using the Traditional Approach”

A user describing PathPoint’s impact on a mainframe Web services enablement project.

Capturing the Thread of Application Processing ...
Needle and Thread
... Followed by Specified Business Transactions

Providing Solutions For ...

  • Time and Expense Reduction - Mainframe Application Maintenance
    80% of your mainframe application time and budget is devoted to application maintenance – only 20% to new development. Why? … because no one understand how their mainframe applications “really work”. Understand your applications using PathPoint and reduce maintenance time and expenses by 20% or more. More
  • Application Knowledge Transfer - Baby Boomer Crisis
    For years, Baby Boomer’s created and maintained your mainframe applications. They are retiring, and a new internal or external team must learn to maintain and support the mainframe applications left behind by the Boomers. Using PathPoint, organizations can dramatically accelerate mainframe application knowledge transfer to the new team.  More
  • Application Performance Improvement - Accelerate Problem Determination
    Application coding techniques are often at the heart of a mainframe performance problem … static performance tools don’t add much value. Accelerate application performance determination by using PathPoint to dynamically identify application bottlenecks. Leverage execution-based application facts, captured by PathPoint, to guide improvements in coding techniques.  More
  • Application Knowledge - The Key to Legacy Modernization
    The need to modernize legacy mainframe applications is well known … where to start is not so well known. Execution-based facts, delivered by PathPoint’s dynamic application discovery tool, provide the application knowledge necessary to get started … a rapid, repeatable and best-practices approach. PathPoint’s source code parsing feature is particularly valuable for this effort.  More

How PathPoint Works … A Quick Overview

The PathPoint Mainframe Component traces and captures the application-processing path followed ONLY BY specified business transactions – dynamically, as they execute. Captured results are downloaded to the PC Component for easy point and click analysis.

Business transactions are specified in one of three ways:



Terminal Entered
Business Transactions


Non-Terminal Entered
Business Transactions


Batch
Transactions
  • By User ID
  • By Terminal ID
  • By Transaction ID
  • By COMMAREA/ RETRIEVE Data
  • By Job Step Name

PathPoint is NOT a system-wide monitor. PathPoint only traces and captures business transactions that you specify … dynamically, as they execute.

Addressing Application Development Challenges ...

Application Discovery

Without any change to mainframe application source code, PathPoint dynamically captures the application-processing path followed by specified business transaction(s) as they execute. In minutes, application execution information is captured on the mainframe and downloaded to a PC Workstation. Users gain access to sequential execution-based facts, including:

  • Input/Output Screens and Program Messages
    • Terminal and non-terminal input/output messages and BMS map definitions
  • Programs Called
  • Call Statements Issued
  • Tables/Files/Columns Accessed
    • CRUD matrix for DB2
  • How Tables/Files/Columns Accessed
  • Source Code References (COBOL Only)
    • Navigation and conditional IF/THEN logic between captured statements
Application Performance Analysis

PathPoint provides information that enables the analyst to rapidly discover performance improvement opportunities, such as:

  • Reduce or Eliminate Calls
    • Duplicate Calls
    • Repeating Patterns
    • Improper Return Code Defaults
  • Consolidate or Distribute Files/Tables
  • Combine or Separate Program Functions
  • Reduce Time for Long Running Calls
  • Improve efficiency of Access Paths


Performance related information captured by PathPoint includes:

  • Frequency - How many times each call is executed
  • Elapsed Time per Call - How long each call took to execute
  • Interim Time Between Calls - How long between end of one call and start of next call


Examples of how captured information can be used to analyze application performance includes:

  • Algorithm Level - Determine the efficiency of program logic and algorithms
    • Execution metrics are calculated for a sequence of statements
  • Statement Level - Asssess the efficiency of the access path
    • A variety of execution metrics are captured at the statement level
  • DB2 Access Path Execution Metrics - Identify performance bottlenecks by table and index
    • DB2 access path metrics are captured by explain step, including rows qualified (DM and RDS), CPU time, elapsed time, etc.
  • Duplicate - Identify redundant database reads
    • Calculates and summarizes the number of redundant, duplicate database calls
Batch Analysis

Without any change to mainframe application source code, PathPoint dynamically captures the application-processing path followed by specified batch transactions (by job and step) as they execute. In minutes, application execution information is captured on the mainframe and downloaded to a PC Workstation. Users gain access to sequential execution-based facts, including:

  • Programs Called
  • Call Statements Issued
  • Tables/Files/Columns Accessed
    • CRUD matrix for DB2
  • Source Code References (COBOL Only)
    • Navigation and conditional if/then logic between captured statements Examples include:


Examples include:

  • Step Analysis
    • Processing activity for the entire job step
    • Processing summaries by statement, table/file and access method
  • Transaction Analysis
    • Reads to a transaction/trigger file
  • Performance Forecasting
    • Linear projections of file activity
    • Estimated run time for different batch transaction mixes
Business Rules

Mainframe application business rules only materialize when business transactions execute. Without any change to application source code, PathPoint dynamically captures the application-processing path followed by specified business transaction(s) as they execute. Events captured in the sequence of execution include:

  • Input and output screens
  • Programs called (by name)
  • Call statements issued (by number)
  • Tables/files accessed and how (CRUD)


Business rules are identified by leveraging captured call statements and invoking a sophisticated two-step automated process:

  • Call Statement to Source Code Relationship
    • Captured call statements are used to parse source code and relate them to source code statements.
  • Logic Path Analysis
    • All possible conditional and navigational logic paths between each successive pair of call statements are identified, and captured


A detailed execution-based roadmap of COBOL source code logic is the result. Providing users with factual insight into business rules for specified business transactions - right down to the line of code.

DB2 Performance

PathPoint provides various metrics for DB2 calls in a transaction/job step.

  • Statement Level - PathPoint captures various execution metrics and summaries at the statement level.
  • DB2 Access Path Execution Metrics - PathPoint captures various DB2 access path metrics by explain step including rows qualified (DM and RDS), CPU time, elapsed time, etc. so you can quickly identify performance bottlenecks by table and index.
  • Host Variable Values - PathPoint captures host variable values by statement.
  • DB2 Metrics by Transaction - PathPoint captures a variety of DB2 performance metrics including buffer synchronous/asychronous metrics, GETPAGEs, synchronous/asychronous reads and writes, wait times, service times and CPU times.
SOA

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a business-centric IT architectural approach that supports integrating your business as linked, repeatable business tasks, or services. PathPoint provides a means to view the application processing in terms of the business.

  • Business Activity Analysis - PathPoint captures application information by end user defined activities.
  • Transaction Analysis - PathPoint captures transaction messages and the working set of application objects that process those business transactions.
  • Statement Pattern Analysis - PathPoint enables one to find consistent call patterns for identifying common logic shared across the application.
Web Enablement

Web enablement requires a detailed analysis of existing applications on the mainframe including source and uses of data and interfaces for the new transactions to originate from the web. PathPoint provides the details about how your applications work today in terms of the business.

  • Dynamic Data Collection - PathPoint shows how applications work today.
  • Business Transaction Oriented - PathPoint documents business transactions which includes input and output screens/messages, application objects "touched", database CRUD matrix, data manager metrics and statement list.
  • Complete Picture - PathPoint captures information about transactions entering CICS, transactions propogated, programs called and table/files activity. This information provides a profile of the application activity that must be replicated by the new functionality originating in the cloud.

Providing Real Solutions for the COBOL Market ...

  • IBM Destination z - In-house COBOL Knowledge Is Necessary
    Teaching someone to write and debug COBOL code is wildly different than preparing someone to maintain, support and enhance a dynamic 25-year-old COBOL application suite comprised of thousands of programs and millions of lines of code. Application-based COBOL training is needed. More
  • IBM Developer Works - COBOL Is the Strategic Language
    COBOL language is a rich development environment on the mainframe. More
  • The Gartner Group - Understanding the Swirling Dynamics of the Mainframe Platform Decision
    The experiences of the new decision makers and enterprise architects are beginning to chip away at the unwavering acceptance of the mainframe platform. IBM continues to invest and innovate in this platform, offering capabilities that play well in its largest installed base. More

©2017, PathPoint Software, Inc.

Contact: 203-640-6079