Mainframe Continuous Testing Solutions
The mainframe is the workhorse of many digital projects and it enables them. For example, in most banks the mainframe is the backbone for internet banking, cashpoints (ATM’s) and other payment services.
The consumption of digital services via channels such as mobile or web is enabled through middleware of service APIs and the mainframe batch system.
Put simply, the mainframe is the server, the clients are mobile and web and the glue in the middle is a layer of service APIs.
Most of mainframe workloads fall into a batch processing category. The operating system defines a job as a predefined sequence of commands, programs and data as a single unit. Once submitted, the operating system keeps a number of jobs in memory and executes them without manual interventions. Jobs are processed in the order of submission, in a first come first served fashion, their output is directed to files or DBMS systems.
Testing services that activate batch systems on the mainframe are largely manual because of the job submission and the review of the test results. Significant value in terms of time and cost can be extracted by automating such test scenarios.
Sandhata has developed an automated framework to allow testing of the mainframe batch jobs and API calls without manual intervention.
- This solution enables the team to be more self-sufficient in refreshing test environments with a pre-defined baseline and sanity test without or, with least dependency, on the environments team
- This framework is an integral to mainframe virtualisation strategy as it enables faster testing with better coverage within the ZD&T & ZVM environments
- It enables the team to start regression testing much earlier in the development cycle by removing the dependencies on the upstream systems
- This solution is critical to CI/CD capability within mainframe as it removes all manual process and handoffs
- This framework provides better visibility and auditability which removes the necessity for the testers / developers to manually evidence using screenshots
- This solution is key to enable agile practices within mainframe as it supports a lean approach, enhanced automation and collaboration between dev
and test - This solution supports multiple testing phases, i.e. Unit Test, ST, SIT, CIT, NFT and UAT with maximum
