“3… 4… 25 Times More Productive”: Web Services Programmers Talk JavaScript

by Russ Teubner
January 29, 2010

Here’s some very good, very timely news for organizations resolved to do more with the mainframe, e.g., by putting CICS applications and mainframe data to work in an SOA or other integration architecture.

Web services developers and development teams report significantly higher productivity when they use a JavaScript-based web services development tool.  

I know, I know.... I too have heard all the “ifs,” “ands,” and “buts” – JavaScript isn’t a server-side technology, JavaScript isn’t a full-fledged programming language.... Fact is, these just aren’t true anymore. JavaScript has matured, particularly on the server side, and, thanks to the efforts of advocacy groups like CommonJS, the language, libraries, and new extensions have been and continue to be standardized by ECMA. As for productivity, you don’t have to take my word for it.

Listen to real web services developers who are doing CICS integration for large enterprises. Three were asked about productivity using a JavaScript tool for mainframe web services compared to other, more common tools. Their answers may surprise you.

Services Programmer, Life Insurance Company

A veteran contractor-developer working for a large life insurance provider said, “I’ve written lots of COBOL in my career. If I put a number on productivity using a JavaScript tool, I’d say 3 to 1 – I am at least 3 times more productive using a JavaScript tool for creating web services from legacy mainframe applications.”

That’s a good testimonial. But this individual’s productivity really improved when doing web services that adhere to the insurance industry’s ACORD XML standards. “For customizing the output of a web service to produce ACORD XML, I am 25 times more productive. ACORD XML is very tedious with something like COBOL and very easy with a JavaScript tool.”

“25 times more productive.” I’ll let that quote speak for itself.

Application Delivery Manager, Bank

An application development manager at a regional U.S. bank had similarly positive answers. “I have a lot of experience with FEPI and HLLAPI interfaces, and I’d say that this isn’t really a fair comparison. There’s no contest. As a novice with the JavaScript integration tool, I was at least 4 times faster at developing web services.”

He went on to offer another compelling perspective, that of a long-term project. “In one of our projects, I was able to develop a ‘production-sturdy’ (not quite ready for production) integration application in just 2.5 months. The same application took someone else using conventional methods almost 3 years.”

If you’re contemplating mainframe web services, accelerating deployment by 90% and achieving your business goals much, much faster is another good outcome. You might even agree that this is one of those improvements a marketer could justifiably describe as “dramatic.”