Project Profile

Supra to DB2 Conversion

Deepali Srivastava
 Supra to DB2 Conversion Project Profile

Confidentiality Statement

Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Notice

The information contained in this document is confidential and proprietary to TATA

Consultancy Services. This information may not be disclosed, duplicated or used for any other
purposes. The information contained in this document may not be released in whole or in part
outside TCS for any purpose without the express written permission of TATA Consultancy
Services.

© TATA Consultancy Services 2007

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Contents

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ..................................................................................................... 4

ABOUT THE CUSTOMER......................................................................................................................... 6
PROJECT BACKGROUND....................................................................................................................... 6
SCOPE OF WORK...................................................................................................................................... 7
SUGGESTED SOLUTION BY TCS.......................................................................................................... 8
TECHNOLOGY & TOOLS ......................................................................................................................... 9
FACTS & FIGURES.................................................................................................................................. 10
HIGHLIGHTS ............................................................................................................................................. 11
BENEFITS TO THE CUSTOMER........................................................................................................... 11

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Abbreviations and Acronyms

The following abbreviations and acronyms have been used in the document.

ABBREVIATIONS EXPANSION EXPLANATION

AOS Advanced Order System One of the IT (information Technology) systems in
XYZ that allows accounts to order promotional
product, which are Everyday items that have been
grouped together and assigned a common start and
end ship date. This allows the pre-sampling and
pre-booking of Everyday product prior to the actual
ship date and the stock reserved for that account on
a first-in/first-reserved basis.
BDAM Basic Direct Access An access method, which is used to directly retrieve
Method or update particular blocks of a data set on a direct
access device
CICS Customer Information An IBM (Intel Business Machines) licensed program
Control Sysytem that enables transactions entered at remote
terminals to be processed concurrently by user-
written application programs
COBOL Common Business A high-level language, based on English, that is
Oriented Language primarily used for business applications
CSI Customer Satisfaction A metric to measure the satisfaction levels of the
Index customer
DP Display Planning One of the IT systems of XYZ that delivers planned
orders for season card displays
DPL Distributed Program The distributed program link function enables a
Link CICS (Customer Information Control System)
program (the client program) to call another CICS
program (the server program) in a remote CICS
region.
GDG Generation Data Group A collection of historically related non-VSAM (Virtual
Storage Access Method) data sets that is arranged
in chronological order; each data set is known as a
generation data set.
HLQ High Level Qualifier A prefix that is used to uniquely identify an MVS
(Multiple Virtual Storage) data set
IBM Intel Business Machines A multinational computer technology and consulting
corporation also known as the ‘Big Blue’,
headquartered in New York, United States
IE Industrial Engineering One of the IT systems of XYZ that carries detail
information specific to division, plant, department,
work station/process, and manufacturing standards
IRS International One of the IT systems of XYZ that is designed to
Requirements System provide coordinators in the Export Operations area

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with visibility of non domestic fininshed goods,

schedules and shipments to XYZ’s international
affiliates
IT Information Technology The study, design, development, implementation,
support or management of computer-based
information systems, particularly software
applications and computer hardware
JCL Job Control Language A control language used to identify a job for an
operating system and to describe the job's
requirement
MP Master Planning One of the IT systems of XYZ that develops the
corporate plan to sell XYZ’s products
MVS Multiple Virtual Storage One of the family of IBM operating systems for the
System/370 or System/390 processor, such as
MVS/ESA and MVS/XA
PDM Physical Data Manager The software in Supra that handles all manipulation
of physical data
PG Product Grouping One of the IT systems in XYZ that maintains the
Corporate Product Grouping database to be used
by the entire corporation
PPS Pre-Production One of the IT systems of XYZ that is used to
Scheduling monitor, track, schedule, prioritise and facilitate the
movement of work through the Product
Development business areas
PRS Program Reservation A utility in customer’s mainframe system to reserve
System programs in production environment for
development or fix and to check-in back the same
to production libraries
SAS Statistical Analysis General purpose statistical software that manages
System and manipulates large volumes of data and
performs statistical analysis
SDSF Spool/System Display An IBM licensed program that provides detailed
And Search Facility information about the jobs and resources on an
MVS system
SPUFI SQL Processing Using A facility of the TSO (Time-sharing Option)
File Input attachment subcomponent that enables the DB2I
user to execute SQL (Structured Query Language)
statements without embedding them in an
application program
SQL Structured Query A language that can be used with COBOL
Language (Common Business Oriented Language), PL/I,
FORTRAN, and assembler application programs or
interactively to access relational databases and to
control access to these databases
TSO Time-Sharing Option An optional configuration of the operating system
that provides conversational time sharing from

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remote stations
VPN Virtual Protocol Network A network comprised of one or more secure IP
(Inernet Protocol) tunnels connecting two or more
networks
VSAM Virtual Storage Access An access method for direct or sequential
Method processing of fixed-and variable-length records on
direct access devices

About the Customer

XYZ, Inc., headquartered in ABC is one of the leading producers of greeting cards in the United
States. XYZ and its affiliated brand cards, gift-wrap, and related items are sold in more than
43,000 stores across the country and are distributed across, more than, 100 countries in 30
languages. Founded by X, the company now has wholly owned subsidiaries in 12 countries and
besides its personal expression products, is also known for its footprint in the entertainment
industry.

Project Background
The XYZ IT environment with SUPRA does not optimally leverage all the efficiencies that are
possible with mainframe hardware and software and hence XYZ embarked on an IT mission of
converting its main database system SUPRA (a product of CINCOM), running on IBM mainframe
system by DB2 – an IBM product.

To exemplify the above, the prime reasons, XYZ needs to replace Supra PDM (Physical Data
Manager) for, are due to:

a) Limited capabilities of Supra PDM software in the wake of technical changes associated with
IBM’s move to 64-bit mainframe hardware and software

Supra PDM software code utilizes 31 bit addressing for all index functions, support of Cobol II, and
Cache Buffering above the line; there is no plan of CINCOM to rewrite this logic to utilize 64-bit
processing.

Within one or two years, XYZ needs to implement a 64-bit version of the mainframe operating
system (Z/OS) to stay on supported software. During this time, the Supra PDM software will run on
31-bit compatibility mode with unknown performance issues. Due to the heavy overnight
processing requirements XYZ currently faces, a small performance decrease in Supra might
eliminate any open non-processing window and begin to affect distribution center cutoffs.

b) IBM to drop support for BDAM (Basic Direct Access Method) access method

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Supra PDM in XYZ systems use the BDAM access method (included in IBM OS/390 mainframe
operating system software) as the most efficient option. Due to aging of the BDAM access
method, IBM has begun to announce that its software and hardware would not support BDAM in
the near future.

c) Dwindling of customer base for CINCOM’s Supra

The customer count for Supra PDM continues to decrease and there is a probability that CINCOM
may be compelled to drop its support on Supra.

d) Dwindling resources with Supra skill

Going forward, it will be difficult for XYZ to maintain the internal knowledge and staff to support
Supra.

To mitigate the risks as stated, the Supra to DB2 conversion project was initiated.

The business benefits envisioned from the project are:

Removal of IT Bottlenecks
9 Risk factors associated with Supra in the long run will be obliterated.
9 Since DB2-based systems have far more enhanced features than Supra – integration
with modern technologies in DB2-based systems will be easier.

Cost savings
9 SUPRA licensing cost will be reduced.
9 Mainframe resources are a strategic product of IBM and available on all IBM key
platforms, so these can be utilized more cost-effectively with DB2-based applications
than SUPRA-based ones.

Performance Improvement
9 Stable operational platform with consistent data, ease in data maintenance and
redundancy removal - all by virtue of relational model of DB2
9 Reduced cycle time with parallel processing using partitioned tablespaces and removal
of redundant logic.

Scope of Work
The scope of work for TCS included the following:

9 Detail Analysis of the existing mainframe applications

9 Database Design, in DB2, considering the existing data model as baseline
9 Data migration program construction and setting up data migration procedures
9 Program conversion
9 Unit Testing

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9 System Testing
9 Performance Testing
9 Acceptance Test Support
9 Implementation Support

Suggested Solution by TCS

The conversion project was carried out in phases per application using the onsite-offshore
methodology, where 80% of the work was done at offshore.

The approach used by TCS was a holistic one catering to the conversion per application. The
following strategy was used for conversion and migration:

APPLICATION CONVERSION
9 Complex and big applications were implemented in phases- Partitioning strategy was used for
Pre-Production Scheduling (or PPS) system to implement PPS in phases of five.
9 Normalisation of database was carried out without affecting the programming logic much.
9 In Supra, if a Master file contained only key fields, then the master file was considered
redundant as the same set of Key fields was defined in associated variable files. Hence in
migration, these master files were omitted/merged with the associated variable files while
defining new tables in DB2. This helped in reducing the data redundancy.
9 For variable files containing duplicate records, appropriate keys were determined.
9 Due to phased-approach, it was necessary that a single online application program got access
to both Supra and DB2 data, simultaneously, where Supra and DB2 databases were attached
to separate CICS regions. The Dynamic Program Link (or DPLs) was developed and used to
ease the cross CICS regions communication issue, where a DPL program developed to
access DB2 database was called, and run remotely to a CICS region, where DB2 database
was linked.
9 DPL programs were made reusable, that is, per table one DPL program was coded.
9 SQL to access DB2 database were kept centrally in COBOL copycodes format to increase
reusability, rather than being coded in the main host program for both batch and online
programs.

DATA MIGRATION
9 One-time COBOL programs were written for data conversion to read the Supra files as flat files
and convert Supra data fields into DB2 data types and create an output file with data in the
format that can be loaded to DB2 directly.
9 The output file created by COBOL program was loaded to the corresponding DB2 table using
IBM utility DSNUTIL.
9 Parent tables were loaded first and then the child tables.
9 After table load- the checker programs were run to create data reconciliation reports.
9 In some applications – the entire Data Migration job sequence was automated.

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Technology & Tools

Hardware : IBM 3090 Mainframe

Software : COBOL, CICS, JCL(Job Control Language), SAS(Structured

Analysis System), FILEAID, SPUFI(SQL Processing Using File
Input) , SYNCSORT, BMC’s Catalog Manager, Princeton
Softech’s tools, EXPEDITER, ETI extract tool, CA7, PRS
(Program Reservation System), LIBRARIAN

Operating System : OS 390 V 2.1

Database : SUPRA V2.6.10, DB2 Version 7

Network : VPN (Virtual Protocol Network)

TOOLS

A. The in-house tools built by TCS, using REXX, used in the project were:

TOOL FUNCTION
LOC To count the number of lines of code in mainframe programs. Is used
extensively during estimation activity
MASSCMPL To perform mass compile of programs in a dataset
MASSBIND To perform mass bind of programs in a dataset
VRBLCHNG Replaces Supra variable with DB2 variable using Supra-DB2 variable
cross-reference as input

B. The in-house tools of XYZ in CLIST, which were used in the project, are listed as follows:

TOOL FUNCTION
COBGENER This generates the template COBOL program based on the information
provided in the series of ISPF panel. (This command has proved useful for
SEQUENTIAL UPDATE PROGRAM/REPORT PROGRAM and two FILE
MATCH PROGRAMs)
JC This command works in an intended JCL (Job Control Language)
/PROCEDURE member, opened in edit mode. This command inserts two lines
of JCL JOBCARD
CVTJCL This command is used in JCL/PROCEDURE member to convert production
JCL so as to be executed in TEST environment. This adds the HLQ (High
Level Qualifier) of TSO USERID in front of all datasets; and converts GDG
(Generation DataGroup) files to sequential datasets.
BLDGDG Z This command is also used in edit session of either a JCL or PROCEDURE

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member. This creates GDG base of all output GDG datasets, specified in the
JCL/PROCEDURE member (Output GDG datasets are recognized by +1
declaration). Z indicates the value of GDG dataset limits desired.
STPRENUM This command re-numbers the PROCEDURE or JOB steps starting from 10 for
the first step and an increment of 10 for each subsequent step.
JCLCHK This command also works in edit session of a JCL/PROCEDURE member.
This scans the JCL/PROCEDURE member and lists the JCL errors.
VSAMPERF This command is used in the edit session of a JCL/PROCEDURE using a
VSAM file (AMP statements are required to improve the access feature of
VSAM datasets). This command generates AMP JCL statements for VSAM
datasets. The AMP statements are placed in the JCL in the appropriate spots.
Three lines are created: one for sequential access, one for random access,
and one for mixed. The appropriate statement may be selected by deleting the
other two.

Facts & Figures

Since the entire conversion was estimated to take approximately five years; no effort and cost
estimation was done for the entire project. Instead, for every application to be converted the cost
and the effort estimations were done before the actual start of the process of application
conversion and a separate proposal was submitted to the client for approval.

The generic information of the projects is as below:

Name : Supra to DB2 Conversion – <module name>

Type : Conversion
Work location : TCS Kolkata (Offshore), Client location (Onsite)

Given below is the list of applications converted by TCS for XYZ Inc., starting from 1st July, 2003
and ending on 31st March, 2006.

APPLICATION START END DATE PEAK NO. OF NO. OF

NAME DATE TEAM PROGRAMS SUPRA
SIZE FILES
IE 1-July- 31-Oct-2003 14 + 1 46 16
2003
IRS 8-Sep- 31-Dec-2003 4+1 13 4
2003
AOS 15-Sep- 31-Jan-2004 10 + 2 41 2
2003
MP 29-Sep- 31-Jul-2004 18 + 3 222 30
2003
PG 1-Mar-04 27-Aug-2004 9+1 117 10
PPS-Phase I 5-Apr- 10-Nov-2004 7+2 113 42
2004

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DP 1-Nov- 2-Apr-2005 8+2 71 22

2004
PPS-Phase II 6-Sep- 20-May-2005 12 + 3 289 3
2004
PPS-Phase III 25-Apr- 18-Nov-2005 12 + 2 164 11
2005
PPS-Phase IV 16-Aug- 31-Mar-2006 14 + 2 290 9
2005

Highlights
• Project marks the start of TCS -XYZ relationship.

• It is one of the key Migration & Re-engineering projects in the unit, which yielded about 15+
resources well-versed in converson methodologies and SUPRA and DB2 technologies.

• Defect-free implementation of most of the applications without any slippages, resulted in high
customer satisfaction (98.82 CSI(Customer Satisfaction Index) in March 2006) and accolades,
following implementation of the converted application.

• Project handled lot of technical challenges successfully. The key ones are :

9 Partitioning of tables to maintain huge volume of data and reduce contention

9 Giving dual updates of Supra & DB2 and Cross Region Data base access under
CICS

9 Partitioning of Large and Complex Applications for Phased and Seamless

implementation

9 Maintaining performance in moving from Network to relational database

9 Minimizing down-time of system during 'cross over'.

Benefits to the Customer

• Optimised data model, cleaner and refined data, enabling consistent and precise
information to business

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• Improved performance with decreased batch cycles providing business sufficient time to
run more iterations in order to plan and arrive at decisions

• Functional enhancements and application re-engineering to integrate with Enterprise

Architecture

• Environment and Data base Cleanup

• Enhancement to XYZ’s knowledge repository.

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