I wrote this text in part using GPT-3, OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model. Upon generating draft language, I reviewed, edited, and revised the language to my own liking and take ultimate responsibility for the content of this publication. This was an interesting experience, one that might worth its own blog… Now let’s get started.

COBOL is a programming language that has been in use for decades, and it is still widely used in many core business systems. However, as technology has evolved and the demands of businesses have changed, many organizations have found themselves in need of modernizing their COBOL applications.

By thoroughly analyzing their code, organizations can make informed decisions about how to modernize their COBOL applications and ensure that they are able to keep pace with changing business needs.

Introducing Micro Focus Enterprise Analyzer

Micro Focus Enterprise Analyzer is a tool that helps organizations analyze their mainframe codebase and plan for modernizing their applications. It provides a comprehensive view of an organization's codebase, including information on code structure, dependencies, and potential issues.

One of the key benefits of Enterprise Analyzer is its ability to quickly and accurately analyze large codebases, with customers loading 100s of millions of lines of code (MLOC). This is especially important for organizations with large and complex mainframe applications, as manually analyzing this amount of code can be a daunting and time-consuming task. With Enterprise Analyzer, organizations can quickly and easily gain insights into their codebase, allowing them to make informed decisions about how to modernize their applications.

Another key benefit of Enterprise Analyzer is its ability to visualize the structure and architecture of an organization's applications. This can be helpful for understanding the relationships between different components of the codebase, which can be especially useful when planning modernization projects.

Enterprise Analyzer call map with automated clustering

Additionally, Enterprise Analyzer can identify potential issues in an organization's codebase. By analyzing the code, Enterprise Analyzer can identify potential problems such as code duplications, unused code, and potential security vulnerabilities. This allows organizations to address these issues before they become major problems, ensuring that their applications remain stable and secure.

Enterprise Analyzer code quality statistics displayed in Jenkins

Now, let’s explore some common use cases of code analysis and Enterprise Analyzer:

One of the key ways that organizations can use Enterprise Analyzer is to plan for modernizing their COBOL applications. By thoroughly analyzing their codebase, organizations can identify areas that may need to be updated to keep pace with changing business needs.

For example, an organization may be considering breaking up their monolithic COBOL application into microservices. By using Enterprise Analyzer, they can identify the different components of their codebase and plan how to divide them into microservices. This allows the organization to ensure that their modernization project is successful and that their applications will continue to function properly in a microservices architecture.

Enterprise Analyzer data flow diagram

Application Knowledge for Developer Efficiency

Another way that organizations can use Enterprise Analyzer is to improve the efficiency of their developers. By providing a comprehensive view of an organization's codebase, Enterprise Analyzer can help developers understand the structure and dependencies of the code they are working with. This can be especially helpful for organizations with large and complex COBOL applications, as it can be difficult for developers to understand the intricacies of these applications.

For example, a developer may be tasked with expanding a data item in an organization's COBOL codebase. By using Enterprise Analyzer's Impact Analysis feature, the developer can quickly and easily identify all the code that is affected by the change and make sure to update it accordingly. This can help developers to work more efficiently and effectively, improving the overall productivity of the organization.

Enterprise Analyzer - Analyzing affected code

Code Analysis as Part of CI/CD Pipeline

In addition to being useful for planning modernization projects and improving developer efficiency, Enterprise Analyzer can also be integrated into an organization's CI/CD pipeline. By incorporating code analysis into the CI/CD pipeline, organizations can ensure that their code is thoroughly tested and free of any potential issues before it is deployed.

One way that organizations can integrate Enterprise Analyzer into their CI/CD pipeline is by using the Enterprise Analyzer Jenkins Plugin and REST API. These tools allow organizations to easily integrate Enterprise Analyzer into their existing CI/CD pipelines, allowing them to automatically analyze their code as part of the testing phase. This can help organizations to ensure that their applications are stable and secure and that newly added code adheres to the company coding standards.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Micro Focus Enterprise Analyzer is a valuable tool for organizations looking to modernize their COBOL applications. By providing a comprehensive view of an organization's codebase, Enterprise Analyzer can help organizations identify areas that may need to be updated to keep pace with changing business needs, improve the efficiency of their developers, and incorporate code analysis into their CI/CD pipeline for improving code quality.

To experience the benefits of Enterprise Analyzer for yourself, try the free trial that is available on all major cloud platforms. And be sure to visit the Enterprise Analyzer community site for more information and to connect with other users of the tool.