Eclipse-based development environments are the standard for development work in the decentralized world. Change and approval processes by the host via tools, such as CA Endevor or Serena ChangeMan, are known, not offered, or only very rudimentary. The CM-Toolset supplements Eclipse-based development environments in these processes and offers functions for the management of source changes and the approval of objects in different environments and levels (development, QS, production).

Development plans (e.g., change request or correction of error) are summarized in packets. These packets form the basis of all change and approval processes.

The CM-Toolset seamlessly integrates as an Eclipse Plugin into all existing Eclipse installations. Integration into known IDEs for decentralized COBOL development, such as Micro Focus Enterprise Developer or COBOL IT Developer Studio, is completely possible. For Eclipse-standard installations, an editor with COBOL syntax highlighting is included. Already available editors can continue to be used.

Developers work with Eclipse and the CM-Tool Plugin in Windows, while compilations and approval of the objects occurs remotely on Unix/Linux servers.

The developers use a central development environment (IDE) for the administration of field-change packages, compile process, approval in testing, approval of acceptance environments, and production approval.

Different test and integration/acceptance environments and their dependents can be configured freely. In so doing, requirements can be defined such as “No approval after integration without prior approval after development”. Environments can be distributed between different Unix/Linux servers.

Established development environments, such as Micro Focus Enterprise Developer, are supplements with functions for change and approval processes, as with Endevor or ChangeMan.

Experienced host developers who are new to the decentralized world are quick to understand with familiar concepts. Therefore, the training period is correspondingly short.

The objects to be managed (e.g., COBOL module, C modules, shell scripts, etc.) are freely configurable. All actions applied to objects (compile, accept) are adjustable via corresponding scripts. Therefore, there is no restriction to particular programming languages/scripts or other types such as IMS masks.