The November 2023 tech talk was presented by Dave McKenna
Abstract
What do you think of when I say “mainframe”? Most think of a giant, lumbering dinosaur. If I ask you what animal you think of when I say “agile,” most folks respond with “cheetah.” My challenge at CA Technologies/Broadcom was to make that dinosaur more like a cheetah – or to at least make it dance a little.
The challenges were many. It’s no secret that most folks with mainframe knowledge and skills are getting close to retirement age. New mainframe developers want to use modern tools to work on the platform. This can be a challenge because historically, the mainframe has used very different tools and programming languages than what is used in non-mainframe development or even what is taught in colleges and universities. Testing and quality practices didn’t include much in the way of automated testing. Almost all testing was done manually. And DevOps was unheard of….
In this session, I will talk about what we have done to address these situations with agile and DevOps practices to substantially increase the quality of our products while increasing value to our customers. Today, we are the “Dancing Dinosaur.”
About the Presenter
David McKenna
Dave McKenna has been with CA Technologies/Broadcom for over 25 years. A U.S. Air Force veteran, Dave is a champion of Agile and Lean thinking within Broadcom and also does anti-bullying programs for youth in the Pittsburgh area, where he performs stunts such as ripping telephone books in half and folding frying pans. He published a book through CA Press titled The Art of Scrum and performed at the CA World™ 16 user conference as the World’s Strongest Mainframer.
