View and understand assessment results

This page describes how to review the assessment of the discovered assets, and analyze the application source files using generative AI.

The assessment results provide you with details such as the lines of code and number of calls found in the application, which help you plan your migration. Also, the analysis provides you with a summary of the program, which helps you understand the semantics of the program.

Before you begin

Review application assessment results

To open an assessment to review results, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Mainframe Assessment Tool in a web browser.
  2. In the left pane, click Assessments.
  3. On the Assessments page, to open a specific assessment, click the expander arrow.

The assessment dashboard appears, and it includes the following pages:

Discover and analyze source code

The Discovery page provides an overview of analysis of the application source code that you uploaded for assessment.

To discover and analyze your source code, follow these steps:

  1. Click Discovery.

  2. To select a report type, in the Report type list, select the report type that you want to view.

    The following table lists different report types and their description:

    Report type Description Details
    Inventory Provides details about the number of files, code lines, and program types.
    • Count by file type: number of files per language.
    • Lines of code by file type: number of code lines per file type.
    • Actual vs commented lines of code: number of code lines compared to number of comment lines.
    • Category - batch/online: number of batch programs compared to online programs.
    • Total lines of code: total number of lines of code across all files included in the assessment. Use this data to understand the overall size of the codebase.
    Module Types Categorizes modules based on their call relationships, specifically for COBOL and JCL.
    • Modules called from COBOL programs: number of modules that are called directly from within the COBOL source code.
    • Modules called from JCL: number of modules that are called directly in your JCL files.
    • Top 5 COBOL module utilities: list of frequently used utilities used by your COBOL programs.
    • Top 5 JCL module utilities: list of frequently used utilities in the JCL jobs.
    Complexity For COBOL programs, shows the complexity of the source code by using Cyclomatic complexity (McCabe's metric).

    McCabe's metrics represent the number of execution paths or decision points in the source code. This qualitative value helps you identify which applications might be easier or more complex to modernize.
    • Complexity table: a file-by-file breakdown of the calculated complexity metrics such as complexity count. A higher complexity count suggests a more complex program.
      • Simple: complexity < 100
      • Medium: 100 <= complexity < 500
      • Complex: 500 <= complexity < 1000
      • Very complex: 1000 <= complexity
    • Complexity mapping: visual representation of the complexity table that provides an overview of the complexity in your codebase.
    Call Dependency Displays the call graph of all uploaded entities. The size of the icons is related to the number of incoming and outgoing calls.
    Driver Modules Shows modules that call many other modules. The size of the icons is related to the number of incoming and outgoing calls.
    Datasets Provides a detailed view of all datasets involved in the assessment.
    • Dataset Lineage: shows how each dataset is used across different jobs, steps, and programs.
    • Dataset Fields: lists all fields within each dataset, along with their data types, start positions, sizes, key indicators, and other properties.
    Databases Lists the DB2 tables used in the assessment. Details each table's data lineage, columns, and properties.
    Orphan Programs Lists all programs that neither call another entity nor are called by another entity.
    • Program name: identifies the program module that has been found within the uploaded source code but does not appear to be called or executed by any other part of the application.
    • Original source file: the name of the file that contains the source code for the corresponding program name.
    Missing Modules Shows modules used in the code but not found during input analysis.
    • Missing from file: the specific source file that contains a reference to a module or component that couldn't be found within the uploaded assessment files.
    • Missing module name: the name of the module or component that is missing within the uploaded files.
    • Missing module type: the type of the missing component, which helps in understanding the nature of the dependency. For example, DATASET_SCHEMA, COPYBOOK, or PROC.

    Use this tab to understand what was missing and consider adding these modules before re-running the assessment.
    Parse Issues Shows all errors encountered during source code parsing.
    • Source File: name of the specific file from your uploaded source code in which the parser found an issue.
    • Severity: indicates the seriousness of the parsing issue. For example, Warning.
    • Issues: provides a description of the issue found by the code parser.
    CICS Calls Shows the CICS calls made from each program and their parameters. You can filter the results by command, program, or parameter.
    JCL Job Connections Displays dependencies between JCL jobs.
    • Connected jobs based on a shared data source: shows the connection between two jobs if one job writes data to a shared data source and the other job reads from that same data source. Jobs that only read from the same data source are not connected to each other.
    • Connected jobs based on a shared data source (tabular view): shows the connection details between the jobs.
    • Job dependencies from writers to readers: shows the writer job, the writer program, the data source, the reader program, and the reader job.
    JCL Substitution Params Shows the resolved values of the JCL parameters.
    • Job name: uniquely identifies a specific JCL job, a set of instructions for the mainframe that executes a batch process.
    • Step Name: identifies a single execution step within a JCL job. A job consists of one or more steps; each step typically runs a specific program or procedure.
    • Data definition name: shows the name of a data definition statement in a JCL procedure.
    • Data set name: identifies the name of a file, or dataset, as it exists on the mainframe's storage volumes.
    • Parameter Name: refers to a symbolic parameter that acts as a variable within a JCL procedure.
    • Parameter Value: refers to the value that is assigned to a symbolic parameter within a JCL procedure.

Get AI-generated insights for your business domain

The Domains page provides AI-generated insights for the business domains associated with this assessment. An assessment can have multiple domains, as many as you specified when creating the assessment. Each domain has its own status, summary, business logic, data flow, and associated assets. Domains help you partition portions of your codebase as belonging to a specific business function.

This feature requires that you enable AI insights and add a business domain when you create the assessment. If this page is unavailable, create a new assessment, and enable AI insights.

To get an AI-generated description of your application's business domains, follow these steps:

  1. Click Domains.

    A list of domains is displayed, along with the status of each domain.

  2. To see the summary, business logic, and data flow of a specific domain, click Show more.

    You see detailed AI-generated descriptions of your application's business domain. These descriptions include the purpose, logic, processing data, data flow, and data dependencies.

  3. To search for a specific domain, in the Search field, enter the domain name.

  4. Optional: To view the list of assets associated with this domain, click View assets.

View AI-generated insights for assets

The Assets page provides a summary, detailed logic, and code suggestions for a program or job in your mainframe application. You can also view the status, type, and language for each asset.

The Assets page displays a new entry in the table for each discovered asset, showing its assessment status.

  • Pending: asset is waiting its turn for analysis.
  • In Progress: asset assessment is in progress.
  • Completed: asset analysis has been completed.
  • Warning: assessment is complete with a non-blocking warning during code generation.

To narrow the selection of assets, apply filters in the Filter field. Select a property name to filter on and enter a property value. For example, to filter for all assets by their assessment status, set the property name to Status, and select a value such as Warning or Completed.

To view details of an asset, follow these steps:

  1. In the All assets table, click the name of an asset.

    The Summary page appears; this page provides an AI-generated summary of the asset, along with the business case, and the user interaction analysis.

  2. To view the detailed logic about the asset, click Detailed Logic.

    For COBOL programs and JCL jobs, the Detailed logic page provides granular, paragraph-level, and method-level details about the asset along with test cases.

  3. To view the output fields, click Output fields.

    For COBOL programs, the Output fields page provides a summary of specific data fields that a program generates and their descriptions.

  4. To view the code suggestions, click Code suggestions.

    For COBOL programs, the Code suggestions page provides an AI-generated code suggestion in the programming languages that you selected when you created the assessment.

  5. To view the BMS screen, click BMS maps.

    For BMS assets, the BMS maps page shows you the interface screen.

Download report

Download your assessment report as a zip file in HTML format to view the report offline or share it with others.

To download the report, follow these steps:

  1. In the left pane, click Assessments.
  2. On the Assessments page, click the arrow for a specific assessment.
  3. Click Download report.

  4. Optional: To download a report with only selected assets, filter the assets, and then click Download report.

    The report is downloaded as a zip archive file to your computer. The zip archive includes an HTML file for each program in your assessment. These HTML files contain the information found on Assessments page, including summaries, detailed logic, and generated code suggestions.

    The zip archive also contains a table of contents file named index.html, which has links to all of the files in the archive.

Ask Gemini

Anytime you need help to understand something that is on the page, you can ask Gemini for assistance.

To ask Gemini for assistance, follow these steps:

  1. On the page for which you need assistance, click the the ask Gemini icon Ask Gemini icon.

    The Ask Gemini pane appears. You can ask questions about the assessment. For example, you can ask questions about the business purpose of a specific program such as which program is responsible for calculating the claim rate?.

  2. To clear the chat history, click the More icon, and then click Clear chat.

What's next