02
Sat, Nov
2 New Articles

IBM Donates Rational Unified Process to Open-Source

Commentary
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

Have you ever cracked open a source member to make a simple modification, peered inside, and suddenly experienced that distinct sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? If you're a maintenance programmer, no doubt you've experienced this sensation too many times, especially with homegrown code. How bad can it get? Everyone has horror stories.

Recently, I had this experience while attempting to make a simple change to a Lotus Domino program. Our company changed an account password on an FTP server, and suddenly this particular Domino application started to fail. From the outside, the simple solution to the problem appeared to be some internal reference to an FTP configuration profile record. I assumed that I would find the reference to the FTP server within an errant LotusScript, track down the FTP configuration profile record, and make a quick modification. However, once inside the code, I started to see some really bizarre things.

Nightmare from the Land of Cut-and-Paste

Instead of finding reference to a connection profile record for sending information to the FTP server, I found a nest of hard-coded IP addresses, user IDs, and embedded passwords within the LotusScript itself. In fact, within a single Notes form, I found this same nest of hard-coded FTP security information over 130 times, repeated line for line for each button formula in the form. The original programmer had, it seemed, cut and pasted a badly architected FTP LotusScript that had been found somewhere as an "example solution" from a Lotus Notes/Domino forum. The programmer had replaced the example IP address with our FTP server's IP address, user ID, and password and then repeated this button script throughout the application.

Of course, this meant that I had to track down every reference to the FTP server and laboriously fix the 130+ security flaws. My "simple fix" had transformed into a nightmare of code rectification, testing, and debugging.

"Qualified" vs. Best Practices

Who in their right mind would build an application with such blatant security flaws? One might assume it was an amateur Notes/Domino programmer. But it was not! The original programmer, who was now long gone, had claimed to have once worked for IBM Lotus and was a certified Notes/Domino developer. Yet this mess proved once again that a programmer's reputable job credentials will not guarantee that the working code is up to snuff. Instead, the price of re-architecting this particular code was left to the next poor dupe who came to the task of maintenance. In this case, it came to me, and it made me angry.

Programmers often spend a lot of energy within a shop establishing the particular standards that they see will be useful toward keeping a body of code in good maintenance form. Management, on the other hand, often has a difficult time understanding why good coding standards are so important. And while it is true that recent legislation for regulatory compliance has put increased pressure on management to ensure that corporations meet some minimum security and auditing standards, the actual internal code of an application seldom receives any kind of scrutiny at all. Moreover, as the number of programming languages and services has increased over the years, the foundation of actual code--often generated by code wizards and 3GLs--sometimes actually removes the visibility into poor programming practices. Sometimes, it even removes the ability to document what is going on under the covers.

Expanding Bad Coding Practices to Open-Source

Within the larger developer community, this problem can be further exacerbated by the distribution of open-source code. Open-source enables literally hundreds of thousands of programmers to contribute to projects that end up distributed to applications that are sometimes circulated to hundreds of thousands of users around the globe. Consider the recent security flaws that appeared in the Firefox browser: The code was distributed with flaws that were only later discovered by third-party sources. Was it bad coding or just a bug? When the application has been distributed to hundreds of thousands of users, who cares? Consequently, the need for standards in coding--better known as "best practices" for coding conventions--has become critical.

But who establishes those best practices? While certain software technologies, such as communications protocols and drivers, pass through international standards committees, establishing best practices for coding is still a relatively unbounded territory. So IBM's announcement last week (October 12, 2005) that it was releasing a subset of the IBM Rational Unified Process (RUP) to the open-source community was a coup for open-source developers.

Rational Unified Process as Best Practices

RUP is a vast collection of methods and best practices for promoting quality and efficiency throughout software development projects. IBM says that RUP has helped guide more than 500,000 developers around the world in projects ranging from small-scale products to large, industrial-strength systems. IBM hopes that donating the RUP subset will provide a foundation architecture and some Web-based tools for the software industry to further the process of establishing best practices for application development.

This is important to the industry as a whole because, according to some analysts, nearly half of the internally developed software projects run over budget, 90% are completed late, and 30% are ultimately canceled. In addition, an astounding 15% to 20% of all software defects actually reach the end user before they are remedied. According to the Standish Group, these defects are costing the U.S. economy upward of $60 billion a year.

Adoption of RUP as Model for Best Practices

IBM's donation is designed to advance a collaborative, industry-wide effort to synthesize, share, and automate development processes and best practices among independent software vendors, academia, the research community, IT organizations building integrated systems, and individual software professionals on small or large teams. According to IBM, if RUP is adopted, it could improve software development practices within organizations throughout the industry, while providing standardization in areas such as Web services and SOA.

According to Daniel Sabbah, General Manager, IBM Rational Software, "IBM is doing for the software development process what Eclipse has done for the integration of software tools, what Apache did for Web application servers and what Linux did for operating systems. Software practitioners at large companies, independent software vendors, systems integrators, and in government and academia will be able to collaborate more easily and drive better-managed and higher quality software projects. By rethinking software development practices to emphasize smarter processes and higher-quality outcomes, companies will reach new levels of innovation while obtaining productivity gains characteristic of an on-demand business."

Best Practices for the Future of Application Longevity

For the maintenance programmer hot on the trail of fixing a failed application, too often it's already too late to apply best practices. Too often the failing code is the result of a lack of standards or inappropriate practices, and the entire application must be re-architected and re-built.

RUP is, of course, merely one possible offering to create a model for best practices. Furthermore, many within the industry believe that RUP's complexity outweighs the benefits that it offers in establishing a model for best practices. But it's an important model nonetheless, and IBM's contribution to the open-source community will allow this model to be refined and developed according to the real needs of developers.

Yet the fact that RUP has been used with varying success by such a large number of developers in the past, on such a wide array of development projects, offers hope to maintenance programmers that there may be a brighter future for the task of maintaining code. If IBM's contribution has an impact on how software is developed, perhaps the next generation of applications that we are forced to maintain will offer fewer surprises, more flexibility, and better maintainability.

Thomas M. Stockwell is Editor in Chief of MC Press Online.

Thomas Stockwell

Thomas M. Stockwell is an independent IT analyst and writer. He is the former Editor in Chief of MC Press Online and Midrange Computing magazine and has over 20 years of experience as a programmer, systems engineer, IT director, industry analyst, author, speaker, consultant, and editor.  

 

Tom works from his home in the Napa Valley in California. He can be reached at ITincendiary.com.

 

 

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: