Mapics

Mapics finds the answer with X-Analysis...

Below is the feedback supplied by Mark Rinker from Mapics, after the implementation of X-Analysis in February 2005.

1. What problem/issue were you facing that caused you to need a solution such as X-Analysis ?

(MRR) MAPICS has always prided itself upon searching out the best tools to help streamline the process of designing, creating, testing documenting and delivering some of the finest applications in the ERP Software market. Over the past few years we have adopted some outsourcing of our product development and support areas. It was key for us to be able to have a consistent, fast and flexible tool that can be used by everyone within our organization and our outsourcing partner.

With over 50 million lines of code and several releases of that code being enhanced and supported and having several of our affiliate’s packages attached at one time, our demands were pretty hard to meet. But our initial tests with X-Analysis have been extremely good. The application allows even a novice user to understand how even our most complex applications are put together and does this with a very efficient and easy to use UI.

Within an hour of being introduced to the product, we have had new users, with very little knowledge of an application, create and drill down from a Full Application Data Model Diagram into a Data Flow Diagram to view every program that touches a selected file. They can jump from the Data Flow Diagram directly down to the actual source code view and investigate the code. And one of the best features that we have found is within seconds the product can give you the EXACT business rules that are being executed within a program. And what is really nice is this can be done in pseudo code so the person does not even have to understand RPG code. And the tool allows you to look at 5 different “levels” of the code so you can see all lines of source code or just the business rules. And it is being done in seconds.

Another thing that we like about the tool is it allows different departments to tackle problems from different angles based on the knowledge that they have at the time. For instance, in our Support Group an end-user may call and say “I have a problem within this specific program and want to know how this data is being validated”. Now a support person can drill from the information given into the exact program that is in question, have X-Analysis derive the business rules, mark and send them to the Documenter which produces a very nice report that can be sent directly to the end user via email. What before would have taken several hours of investigation can now be done in minutes. And the support person does not need to be an “expert” in the application being questioned as they did before.

Now let’s say we have the same problem but this time it is within our development group and the Engineer only knows the file. They can select the actual file within the data model and drill down to the program(s) to view the exact line of code that is causing them a problem. With the use of X-Browse they can look directly into the data file and see the data changes. Then the programmer can have the system extract the actual flow of the program and diagram it in Visio with a single mouse click. The flowchart is built directly from the source code, so there is no doubt to it’s accuracy.

2. How was X-Analysis able to solve this issue?

(MRR) I think that I have answered this above. What was nice about this was in the Design group we were able to move the analysis of programs and their business rules back up to the Business Analyst and free up our Engineering Staff so they can stay on coding assignments.

3. What other tools did you evaluate, along with X-Analysis?

(MRR) We looked at several tools over the years, in fact have attempted to use some in the past, such as Hawkeye, but with very little acceptance from the user community. With the X-Analysis tool people are coming to me to see when they can get on.

4. What ultimately made you choose X-Analysis over the competing solutions that you looked at?

(MRR) With a company like MAPICS, that has been around since the beginning days of S34, S36 and S38, writing code in every version of RPG released and having large applications in Synon and the move to outsourcing, we needed something to help cover that knowledge gap quickly and easily and this product does just that. The product is just head and shoulders above their competition, plain and simple.

5. Has the support been of an acceptable standard?

(MRR) Support of the product has been extremely good. We have had a few "self-made" problems and have found a couple bugs in the tool. But all of them have been resolved within one or two business days and most within a couple of hours. Based on that I would have to give Databorough an "A+".

6. Any other comments

(MRR) The more we investigate the other tools that Databorough offers the stronger their package seems to be. At first we were just looking for something to help with our documentation of existing systems and extraction of business rules from our existing source code. However, we are finding that the product can do much more than just that. We are still looking forward to doing more with your product suite.