Migration from Q&R to MICF WEB.

[Pietro Rosella]

​Has anyone done something about migrating Q&R reports that already exist in Q&R to MICF WEb. We keep 2 years of Q&R of reports and would like to transfer them to MICF WEB. We would appreciate if you have thought of a strategy.

Regards,

[Paul Reynolds]

Thanks Pietro, good question.

We will talk about this internally to discuss what we can do on this item and if it makes sense. As of now you are the first customer to have raised this to my knowledge, but I would think it likely it arose before with previous Product management when the New WEB UI direction was decided on, and I'm sure some of our MICS SME's will be able to fill us in on this as well as what we can do at this point and the level of effort required in doing so. 

In the mean time, @Scott Barry,​​ can you shed any light on Pietro's question from sites you have worked with?

Thanks,
Paul

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Product Owner
Broadcom
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[Scott Barry]

Hello Pietro -

My personal experience with MICS Q&R charting/reporting/CSV-generation is extensive, even down to the internally-generated query-code.  And as well, I have many years of MICS/MICF inquiry composition and operation, going back to the 1980's as it turns out.

And my guidance is such that you will want to first assess each Q&R query to determine if it is still used/worthy, mostly so that you can then prioritize each one for a migration task-effort from Q&R to MICS/MICF inquiry environment, both for production- and adhoc-type requests.  This up-front assessment and awareness will help you optimize your time/effort spent on this migration effort.

To your advantage, there are several MICS components that have MICF (SAS ODS) distributed inquiries for you to reference, use, and possibly consider as suitable replacement for any/some existing MICS Q&R queries - the Broadcom/CA TechDocs web portal has inquiry documentation and sample outputs for you to review, reference and discuss internally as possible replacements. 

To get started, after completing your MICS zFS environment setup, I would recommend that you compose a MICF user reporting jobstream for each licensed component, add those MICS-distributed ODS inquiries, and run them for your own site's MICS databases - you will gain insight with their operation, any challenges, and to understand now they operate when/if you so choose to either compose your own Q&R-replacement inquiries.  I would encourage you to setup a MICS test-environment zFS and use that as your sandbox to gain experience with MICS ODS/web/HTML charting and reporting functionality.  The MICS documentation (PIOM and other guides) provide technical guidance with MICS web-reporting environment setup and ODS web-publishing composition and execution.

And of course you will need to gain a solid understanding with MICF inquiry composition, to include the various inquiry steps - those that are necessary to replace "like function" from MICS Q&R.  Your best strategy would be to "learn MICF" first, and then use an existing Q&R query as your proof-of-concept (POC) to migrate to MICF - choosing a query that generates a chart, possibly a tabular report (user-code using PROC PRINT), and also consider need/interest to generate a CSV.  These are all MICF-capable functions that you will need/want to explore and exercise, while helping you to prepare a "Q&R query migration checklist".  Also, with MICF, you will want to gain experience with MICF production/user reporting jobstreams, as well -- and as much to compose a MICF web-reporting hierarchy -- this zFS should be created/mounted separately from any other MICS-related zFS, that is if you have one today say for MICS DocWebVu or otherwise.

Once you have gained technical confidence with MICF facility functionality that is suitable to replace "like" MICS Q&R query functionality, then you will need to proceed with your MICS production-mode Q&R to MICF migration initiative, again, based on a prioritized list of queries (interest/use, complexity, use-frequency).  And don't forget local-site documentation, as much for both existing any new MICF web-publishing inquiries, either production- or adhoc-use types.

And I would say that you can expect to devote weeks to a month or more, time permitting, to get familiar with the MICF facilities -- and then some additional time required to complete the migration.  And I'll emphasize that it is very important to include your management, so to keep them apprised with the time/effort required, any CPU/storage/test-MICS environment resources needed, and to keep a running list of Q&R queries as you progress with the migration effort.  I strongly encourage you to keep everyone involved well-informed and it's to your advantage to not operate in a vacuum where others are not involved and/or aware.

So in a nutshell, yes, there is a Q&R-to-MICF migration strategy but it will be site-specific after some up-front effort to document your Q&R environment (both production and adhoc), then gain experience with MICF facilities, then begin with a POC to gain experience, followed by a comprehensive migration process to leverage the MICF facilities that were added to provide "like replacement" functionality, previously available with MICS Q&R although more within the MICS framework, all on z/OS and no concern with any Windows environment support !!  Such a migration project can definitely be accomplished, given sufficient time/attention and effort.

Scott Barry
SBBTech LLC

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Regards,

Scott Barry
Principal Consultant
SBBWorks, Inc.
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