Case-Study-Shortened SDLC with Interoperability Support through Successful Migration to IBM Rational Change Management Solution

The Client

One of the 96 subsidiaries of India’s largest and oldest business conglomerate, the client is the largest private power utility in India. Since 1911 the client has been the bellwether in the generation, transmission, and distribution of both hydro and thermal power.

Executive Summary

The client develops mission critical applications for the Indian defense forces. Initially the client was using SCCS and VSS tools to manage the change and configuration process. The client approached ZenSOFT to help them migrate to IBM Rational ClearCase. They wanted to automate their change management process thereby liminating time consuming and error prone manual tasks.

Business Case

The client’s strategic electronics division plays a role of “Lead System Integrator” in many major defense programs. The client’s development teams were working on multiple operating systems, thereby extending multiple access points for the same code base. Since the data was distributed, parallel development on various releases was adding on to the overall challenge of consolidated data management. In order to generate an error free build, the client wanted to deploy a flexible software configuration management tool. They wanted to efficiently manage the organization’s large development projects, which involved many developers working independently, yet concurrently, on multiple platforms and on common files, all the while strictly adhering to the stringent compliance guidelines.

Goal (Challenge)

In-depth knowledge of multiple operating systems and communication protocols was indispensable to ensure seamless cross platform development support. As the client served the Indian defense forces, mapping security norms to available product features and setting up the environment in coherence to the defense rules and regulations was a significant challenge.

Solution we provided

ZenSOFT appointed a team of industry experts who in close collaboration with the client identified the loop holes in the entire change and configuration management process. The team consulted the client to choose IBM Rational ClearCase to replace the legacy system. The data was migrated from SCCS and VSS tools to IBM Rational ClearCase. Since adhering to the defense guidelines was critical, ZenSOFT achieved successful migration through well-defined and robust policies and processes in accordance to norms.

Business Benefits

Besides successful elimination of time consuming and error prone manual tasks in delivery methods, the client was also able to:

• Seamlessly migrate to a robust and flexible change management tool – IBM Rational ClearCase
• Achieve superior quality levels
• Build team collaboration through cross platform support
• Deploy centralized repository with stringent access permissions
• Support parallel development and enhance productivity across geographically spread developer network

Technology

• Rational ClearCase- UCM (Unified Change Management)
• Platforms: Windows, Red Hat Linux, Fedora Linux, Sun Solaris

Testimonial

ZenSOFT Services team has exhibited thorough professional approach in providing the solution. Starting from the planning to the environment study, analysis and implementation has been smooth and worth a praise. The technical solution and suggestions provided at various stages had been useful in achieving the objective.

…Yatan Kumar Mishra (Project Manager)