As the administrator of the online IMS system, you are concerned with adequate detail
in the specifications. You need to plan for, and subsequently specify,
the online system. As the development of an application package progresses,
reviews of the design should be held.
The following table summarizes the kind of information that you
must gather and how that information relates to system administration
tasks.
In addition to application design specifications, the application
development team might maintain a controlling document for schedules
and responsibilities. You must contribute to this plan with your own
requirements and milestones, such as completion dates and testing
dates for the operating procedures.
Table 1. Administration's
use of design reviews
| Design stage |
Information needed |
Administrative tasks |
| Design review 1 |
- Scope of project
- Hardware and software requirements
- End-user and development contacts
|
- Analyze IMS function requirements
- Contribute to documentation plans
- Check standards compliance
- Assess network impact
- Assess DP operations impact
- Make workload predictions
|
| Design review 2 |
- Use of MFS and screen usage characteristics
- Elements of end-user control
- Network planning
- Pointers for operator control
- Transaction workload
|
- Establish MFS library control, identify format names
- Coordinate dictionary use
- Check naming standards
- Track network requirements
- Plan security strategy
- Begin RTO and MTO procedures
- Predict processing workload
|
| Design review 3 |
- Message definition
- Conversational attributes
- Databases and programs
- System resource requirements
- Need for message edit
- Recovery considerations
- Security and audit
|
- Calculate message queues
- Calculate SPA data
- Specify system and JCL
- Finalize system requirements and hardware plan
- Specify message edit coding
- Begin recovery procedures
- Develop security design
|
| Database application
design review |
- Database maintenance
- Database sharing
- Validation and acceptance plans
- Performance predictions
- Monitor plans
|
- Document online databases and image copy requirements
- Choose system integrity options
- Establish system availability
- Establish performance criteria and plan monitoring
|
| Logic review |
- Monitor pointers
- Program preload
- Virtual storage needs
- Database processing intent conflicts
|
- Develop a monitoring strategy
- Plan dependent regions
- Develop scheduling algorithm
- Estimate buffer pool and system data set resources
|
Related reading: For more information on the purpose
and scope of design reviews, see IMS
Version 15.6 Database Administration.