IBM Reliability + Agile Methodology = Competitive Advantage Just By Sunil Tanuku systems because the modifications are too difficult. They require massive culture and mindset shifts. Moreover, the conversions take a long time and many executives—IT and others—still believe mainframes and Agile don’t mix. Doubts come from reports that mainframe organizations using Agile have not magically turned around. The Agile mindset, which is a belief in and execution of the Agile Manifesto ideals and its application, are not easy, but making the change to Agile has shown to be worth the time, effort and money. Agile Manifesto — before Louis V. Gerstner Jr. took over as Chairman and CEO of IBM in 1993, the pundits had announced, “the mainframe is dead.” IBM had lost its allure and was on the brink of collapse. In Gerstner’s popular book, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?, he explains how he pulled IBM and the mainframe business out of the fire. Is the mainframe once again on its way to another crash landing? It might be, but there is hope. Results show that applying Agile into the mainframe environment is the newer version of making elephants dance. It’s complicated. No one doubts that the IBM mainframe excels at high-speed transaction processing across industries like banking, retail, government and (invisibly, but powerfully) many more, including mobile applications. According to IBMmainframes.com, 92 of the world’s top 100 banks use the IBM Z mainframe, 23 of the top U.S. retailers and nine out of 10 of the world’s largest insurance companies run IBM Z mainframes. Updated mainframes across the e-business terrain are reliable and scalable. And sluggish when it comes to change. Not all mainframe users, but many, have failed to modernize the mainframe’s legacy 16 | Enterprise Executive | 2022: Issue 6 The name Agile itself was not the first choice. “Lightweight” and “Light” were in the running, but eventually, the consensus was to name the method Agile (synonyms: lively, quick, limber, lithe, dexterous). A transition to Agile methodology required putting Agile and mainframe in the same sentence, which Forbes contributor Adrian Bridgwater calls an oxymoron on the level of jumbo shrimp, or Advanced BASIC. The friction is heightened from some latent misconceptions about Agile and IBM computing, and these can stymie a transition to Agile for mainframes even before the fact.
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