Customer Case StoryLands’ End

Dodgeville, WI

Who we areLands’ End – retailer with sailing roots – 1.4BFY15• 4 UAC environments TEC, TDQ, PRD, CC• Production Environment

– 24 agents, windows, unix, z/OS– >600 workflows, 16,350 tasks– Over 600,000 task runs each month

How we became UAC customers• The mainframe is going away!

The mainframe is going away!• We used CA’s ESP for more than 20 years

– Mainframe engine – IPLs affected all workload• Among the first to move off mainframe• LE Core Team: Ann as PM, Brian, Mary

Jo, Lisa

The OdysseyGetting to our final go-live with Opswise was a multi-year effort 2013-2015• Demos and Request for Proposal (5

vendors/products)• POC process

– Recreate existing test ESP schedules as Opswise workflows

• Lost funding• Regained funding• Lost time; deadline looms

Conversion• Initial conversion team arrival January 2014• Decisions galore throughout the conversion

process• OOPS. Due to internal lack of communication:

Re-converted a sub-set of workload• It takes a Stonebranch village

– Thanks to Tech Support (Laurie!), Bob ***, Jackie ***, Tracy ***, Colin ***, and especially Denis ***

Activity During Conversion

• Training for developers • 9 weeks (2x week) training delivery for

System Operators, also recorded & on Sharepoint

More Activity During ConversionLE custom dashboard

Verification of Conversion

Sub-set of converted code verified line-by-line

• Core team: 10% of converted workload • Developers: at their discretion

• Reinforced training in tool• Raised confidence

Cut-Over

• Two cut-overs– First was small-subset of simple and mostly

independent workflows, Sept 2014• Interface between scheduler environments

– Second & final cutover Feb 2015• Around the clock onsite support for a week• Started Feb 3; contractually required to shut down

old tool Feb 14

Lessons about a conversion:• Involve some developers in your POC – no matter how

busy they are• Missed accounting for “NOINHERIT” & “NODE” in ESP• Find a way to keep tabs on changes in old system during

conversion• (Opinion) Put jobdoc info in a central repository outside

of UAC

Life after conversion• Keep development/QA workload completely

separate from production workload development• Don’t create anything new* directly in the

production system• Follow references when promoting• Don’t allow predecessors to task monitors or

(time-of-day) timer tasks

(Some of) What we did right:Standard Dashboard Series of training sessions

Resource for each agent Recorded training sessions

Resources for online systems Concatenated JCL libraries

Standards for workflows• Names end in LDATE ${TRDATE}• ACTION email using variables for

certain status

Standard naming conventions• Task monitors end in TM• Resources end in abbrv of type• Resources representing an agent

named for agent• File monitors end in FM• Triggers end in TR

Project manager arranged for food 24x7 during go-live week (big hit!)

The BIG Wins• First night’s processing only 0.03% failures

attributed to Opswise • Very few problems in converted code since• Reduced CPU usage on z/OS by ~ 19hrs of

CPU time/month• Of course $$ savings

Some Additional Advantages

Template courtesy of: www.presentationmagazine.com

Can change commands or parameters in task instance waiting to run

When z/OS LPAR is IPL-ed, distributed workload keeps running

Fail-over to passive controller within minutes

Automatic restarts are easier to code and easier to identify

More flexibility in how permissions are defined for users

Not dependent on messages to z/OS master console

Easier to see # of task monitors running (rough estimate of remaining workload)

Due to custom dashboard the following is easy:• Identify Tasks stuck in submitted state• Notice Late starts / Late ends very visible• Identify Tasks waiting for resources• See what is using a resource and what is defined to use it• See what is currently processing

ContactsLisa.***@landsend.com

Brian.***@landsend.com