MQSeries.net :: View topic - ISO8583: "Quick, you guys start coding..."

lancelotlinc · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 5:23 am Post subject:

Three RPG programmers used to work at Gateway 2000, when the company was headquartered in frigid South Dakota. One day the MIS Manager gave direction to the RPG programmers that they would learn a new language, called "see quell".

All was well as the three embarked on a coding jaunt, using Easel Windows front end tied to an OS/2 middleware server, calling AS/400 RPG programs through "see quell" statements. The response times were insufficient (90 seconds), and the three musketeers wanted to see why. Why was it not returning in sub-second lightening fast as the IBM sales rep said it would?

"I know," said the first RPG programmer, "we'll start the performance monitor on the AS/400 as root and watch the query execute."

Soon after, the three musketeers were watching the query execute. Unfortunately, there were no test environments, only production. The MIS department had not yet recognized the value of having a development or test environment to deploy code in. Therefore, between the query and the root performance montor, the three musketeers were consuming 99.7 percent CPU of the production AS/400 and the other 5,997 users (including order entry) were only allowed the remaining 0.3 percent.

Bang, bang, bang!! "Let me in, or I'll blow your house down!", said the big bad wolf, also known as MIS Operations manager Vornbrock. "None of the order takers can take orders. You are causing the system to be too slow. If you guys ever do that again, your fired!" MIS Director Obeney confirmed.

And the three musketeers never logged onto production again as long as they ever lived!

The moral of the story: all systems should have at least three or four separate environments: sandbox, dev, test, prod. The morale of the story: always keep your developers behind locked doors where the big bad wolfs don't know the combination to enter.
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