Have you been a little confused about the meaning of IBM’s application development framework? This book may help, but you will probably remain somewhat puzzled after reading it. The book’s contribution is that it tries to explain an emerging concept that is only partially implemented. Its main limitations are uneven coverage, mixing descriptions of what should be done in application development with descriptions of the role of AD/Cycle, and lack of evaluative content.

AD/Cycle is a good idea. It is to application development what open systems are to hardware. It builds on the idea of a Systems Application Architecture (SAA), which provides a common method for programming user access, common communications support, and common programming interfaces across IBM computing platforms. AD/Cycle is broader and more comprehensive than SAA in that it provides a development framework extending from application idea to tested code. It establishes standards for using a variety of development methods and software across the stages of the development process. An application development platform includes a repository for storing all requirements and specifications needed during development and maintenance. Given the repository and related software, it is possible to use CASE tools and development software from a variety of vendors, as long as the tools and software conform to the standards and specifications of AD/Cycle.

The book describes the AD/Cycle concept and how it has been or is being implemented as an application development environment. It surveys some of the non-IBM software and methods that conform to AD/Cycle standards. It follows the development cycle from business strategy and enterprise modeling to testing and explains how software may be used within the context of AD/Cycle. After a brief explanation of SAA and the AD/Cycle framework, the book has six chapters on stages in development, one chapter on project management tools, and one chapter on the application development platform (and the key repository manager). The last two short chapters are on preparing for AD/Cycle and the future of SAA and AD/Cycle. An appendix contains short descriptions of IBM and non-IBM tools for use with AD/Cycle. The author provides references and a glossary of terms, which is helpful because of the number of new or fairly new acronyms and terms.