ISPF helps programmers develop interactive applications called dialogs. Dialogs are interactive because ISPF uses them to communicate with terminal users through a series of panels while the users do application development tasks.

These are the main components of ISPF:

• Dialog Manager (DM): The Dialog Manager provides services to dialogs and end users. These include display, variable services, input and output, user and application profiles, table management, system interface services, dialog testing and debugging aids, and other services.
• Program Development Facility (PDF): The Program Development Facility provides services to assist the dialog or application developer. These include the edit and browse functions, data set and catalog utilities, TSO or CMS command interfaces, and data set search and compare functions.
• Software Configuration and Library Manager (SCLM): The SCLM facility provides library management capabilities such as versioning, auditing, and promotion. It also provides configuration management capabilities to track how all of the pieces of an application fit together, including source code, objects, load modules, test cases, documentation, and other items. The Build function tracks and invokes the necessary compilers, assemblers and linkage editors.
• Client/Server component: The Client/Server component allows the users of ISPF applications to use a workstation running Windows or UNIX to display the panels of an ISPF application. It does this using the Graphical User Interface of the workstation. Because of this, there is no requirement to change your existing ISPF applications to run in a GUI environment.