Getting Started With ISPW Tutorial

ISPW is the leading source code management software on z/OS. Through its CI/CD integration capabilities, its the backbone for mainframe DevOps. In this tutorial, we are going to walk through the basics of ISPW on Topaz as a developer. We are going to create a simple code change to a COBOL program and promote it to code review.

First we need to open ISPW.

The container view (highlighted in red) displays all tasks (bug fixes, enhancements, and currency) you are currently working on. All code changes for each task are within each container.

First, we need to create a container for our enhancement. Click on the “Add New Assignment” button.

The stream, application, and default path differ at each site so I would reach out to your ISPW administrator if you are unsure about your setup. Here is an example:

Now we need to add our COBOL program to our container. Click on the “Add Task” button.

Define the module name, the type, and the path then click enter.

Double click the module to open it then insert the following code:

Now let’s generate our COBOL program to create our load module.

After your generate completes, the “Date/Time” will update and under Message you will see “OK”. Normally, this would be the time you run your unit tests, but for this tutorial we are just going to skip this. Once you are happy with your changes, you can right click your module and select promote. This will move your changes to the code review stage — depending on your configuration at your site.

Now it’s time for a code review. After your code review is completed, you can continue to promote your module until it reaches production.