When considering the addition of a mobile presentation channel to an existing web-based application, a key question that has to be answered even before development begins is how the mobile channel's characteristics will impact the user experience and the cost of using the application. If either of these factors is outside acceptable limits, economical considerations may forbid adding the channels, even if it would be feasible from a purely technical perspective. Both of these factors depend considerably on two metrics: The time required to transmit data over the mobile network, and the volume transmitted. The PETTICOAT method presented in this paper uses the dialog flow model and web server log files of an existing application to identify typical interaction sequences and to compile volume statistics, which are then run through a tool that simulates the volume and time that would be incurred by executing the interaction sequences on a mobile channel. From the simulated volume and time data, we can then calculate the cost of accessing the application on a mobile channel, and derive suitable approaches for optimizing cost and response times.

When considering the addition of a mobile presentation channel to an existing web-based application, a key question that has to be answered even before development begins is how the mobile channel’s characteristics will impact the user experience and the cost of using the application. If either of these factors is outside acceptable limits, economical considerations may forbid adding the channels, even if it would be feasible from a purely technical perspective. Both of these factors depend considerably on two metrics: The time required to transmit data over the mobile network, and the volume transmitted. The PETTICOAT method presented in this paper uses the dialog flow model and web server log files of an existing application to identify typical interaction sequences and to compile volume statistics, which are then run through a tool that simulates the volume and time that would be incurred by executing the interaction sequences on a mobile channel. From the simulated volume and time data, we can then calculate the cost of accessing the application on a mobile channel.

This article presents a configuration management concept for software projects using Lyee methodology. To illustrate this concept, an introduction in configuration management is given. Then, the structure of Lyee programs is defined by sets and their dependencies. From this structure, the actual configuration management concept is deduced and discussed by rendering the structure for an existing configuration management testbed and describing the involved key players as well as the necessary procedures.

The development of electronic commerce systems is subject to different conditions than that of conventional software systems. This includes the introduction of new activities to the development process and the removal of others. An adapted process must cope with important idiosyncrasies of EC system development: EC systems typically have a high degree of interaction, which makes factors like ergonomics, didactics and psychology especially important in the development of user interfaces. Typically, they also have a high degree of integration with existing software systems such as legacy or groupware systems. Integration techniques have to be selected systematically in order not to endanger the whole software development process. This article describes the development of an EC system and it generalizes salient features of the software process used. The result is a process model that can be used for other highly integrative EC system development projects. The processes described are determined by short process lifecycles, by an orientation towards integration of legacy systems and by a strict role-based cooperation approach.

Today’s global markets demand global processes. Increasingly, these processes are not only distributed, but also contain mobile aspects. We discuss two challenges brought about by these mobile business processes: Firstly, the need to specify the distribution of processes across several sites, and secondly, the need to specify the dialog flows of the applications implementing those processes on mobile devices. To remedy the first challenge, we give an overview of the Process Landscaping method with its support for refining processes across multiple abstraction layers and associating their activities and objects with distinguished locations. Next, we present a Dialog Flow Notation and Dialog Control Framework for the specification and management of complex hypertext-based dialog flows. These tools allow developers to build user interfaces for mobile client devices with different input/output capabilities, which all access the same application logic on a central server.

Throughout numerous analyses and proposals of the capabilities of the Lyee methodology for software development there has been done a lot of work concerning how Lyee works, what its benefits are, and what its perspectives will be. Most of the time this has been done in relation to automated software generation. But concerning all the proposed benefits and the announced major breakthrough Lyee would be for software development, Lyee has also positioned itself in direct concurrence to traditional, already established software development models. The intention of this article is to put the Lyee technology into perspective to established software technologies, which is done at the example of a comparison of the Lyee and the Catalysis approach for software development.

Based on the static structure of Lyee programs, a configuration management concept for Lyee software projects is presented. After describing a modularization concept which is vital for configuration management, the configuration management concept itself is elaborated by showing the involved elements and procedures. Finally, the structure of the actual configuration management tool is presented and discussed.

Increasingly, client-server applications are implemented as web-based applications with user interfaces consisting entirely of web pages or equivalent renderings on other presentation channels (e.g. mobile or speech-based devices). However, the page-based medium and the stateless pull communication impose restrictions on the user interface that often manifest themselves in unsatisfactory dialog control, i.e. possibly severely diminished usability. We therefore present a Dialog Flow Notation that allows developers to encapsulate sequences of multiple dialog steps into reusable dialog modules that can be nested arbitrarily, and to specify different interaction patterns for different devices. The notation is complemented with a Dialog Control Framework that manages dialog flows on multiple channels, leaving only the tasks of implementing the device-independent application logic, designing the interface pages, and specifying the dialog flow to the developer.

When considering the addition of a mobile presentation channel to an existing web-based application, project managers should know how the mobile channel|s characteristics will impact the user experience and the cost of using the application, even before development begins. The PETTICOAT (Performance Tuning and cost discovery of mobile web-based Applications) approach presented here provides decision-makers with indicators on the economical feasibility of mobile channel development. In a nutshell, it involves analysing interaction patterns on the existing stationary channel, identifying key business processes among them, measuring the time and data volume incurred in their execution, and then simulating how the same interaction patterns would run when subjected to the frame conditions of a mobile channel. As a result of the simulation, we then gain time and volume projections for those interaction patterns that allow us to estimate the costs incurred by executing certain business processes on different mobile channels.

Integrationsprojekte sind ein wichtiger Bestandteil einer anpassungsfähigen Informationstechnologie und für einen flexiblen Geschäftsbetrieb unumgänglich. Gerade im Großrechnerbereich besteht ein wachsender Bedarf an Modernisierungsmöglichkeiten für Altanwendungen. Dieser Artikel beleuchtet einen von IBM verfolgten Ansatz zur Modernisierung von Legacy-Anwendungen und diskutiert die nötigen Schritte, um Altanwendungen auf den neusten Stand zu bringen. Das Service Flow Feature (SFF) bietet einen interessanten Ansatz zur Modernisierung von Legacy CICS-Anwendungen (CICS: Customer Information Control System), weil bereits laufende Anwendungen weiterverwendet und in vorhandene Architekturen integriert werden können. Zudem werden bessere Modernisierungsmöglichkeiten bereitgestellt als lediglich die Anpassung der Oberfläche. Hinzu kommt, dass mehrere CICS-Anwendungen aggregiert werden können und die damit erzeugten Geschäftsprozesse über offene Schnittstellen erreichbar sind. Gleichzeitig findet eine Entkopplung der Präsentationslogik von der Anwendungslogik statt. Letzteres bietet dem Entwickler die Möglichkeit, modernere Methoden der Präsentationslogik wie z.B. mittels JSP zu implementieren. Über den Einsatz des CICS SFF in der Entwicklungsumgebung RDz besteht für Firmen kurz- bis mittelfristig die Chance, ihr Reservoire an Legacy CICS-Anwendungen mit relativ wenig Aufwand den modernen IT-Anforderungen anzupassen. / Integration projects are importent elements of a flexible information technology and essential for a flexible business concern. Current discussions show that even in the field of mainframe computing, an increasing need of modernisation possibilities for Legacy applications exist. This article highlights an IBM pursued method to modernize such applications and discusses the necessary steps to make them up-to-date again. The Service Flow Feature delivers an interesting modernization method for Legacy CICS (Customer Information Control System) applications because it reuses and integrates existing applications in available architectures. Furthermore it delivers more possibilities than only modernizing the user interface. In addition, it can aggregate multiple CICS applications, which forms business processes, that are accessible via open interfaces. At the same time, an uncoupling of the presentation logic from the application logic takes place.