Hi
Did you read/see my TechU presentation on ZD&T Survival Kit (Youtube or Slideshare)? I discuss a lot of these issues based on several customer experiences.
You purposes:
<quote>
1. provide an environment for a our devs which has better response time (our dev LPARs is oftern starved of MIPS so response times can be quite low)
2. In the same vein be able to run their batch test jobs without having to wait long times
3. And not so important but provide an environment for our mainframe techs (not all of whom one woud consider sysprogs) to work on z/OS without impacting the "real" z/OS dev LPAR
...
One other feature that attracted my attention was the Sysplex option. We want to start to build our first sysplex and finding resources on the host for this is challenging (and costly). Being able to prototype on ZD&T (we would need z/VM I understand) would be great if it's not onerous.
</unquote>
If these are your purposes, you are in the right spot.
//SP: A perfect platform to test and get to know the parallel Sysplex environment. Every time you have smashed everything, you just reload and try again :-)
About SCM: You really should consider this platform in the light of a "DevOps" strategy.
Today most people are using Endevor, Serena or Rational Team Concert (which just got a new name), but a lot of shops are considering going to some variant of Git.
The general direction is to:
* Move editing from ISPF to a graphical development platform (IBM Developer (my favourite) or CW Topaz or other)
* Move source code repositories from the mainframe to a distributed platform (but could still be on the mainframe with extensions to Eclipse, Git, Jenkins etc.)
* Set up a separate build and deployment process, sometimes based on Jenkins when using Git or Team Concert.
* Do the first compilation, debug and testing on ZD&T
* Use some kinds of automated testing linked to the build and promotion process
* Do the final compilation and testing on the Big Iron
So generally you are not talking about moving up and down between ZD&T and the Big Iron, but having the "Truth" somewhere and then copying to wherever you need it at development, build and test time. Here there is really no difference between ZD&T and any other LPAR, as seen from the process.
But indeed an interesting and important discussion.
Best regards,
Michael Erichsen,
Xact Consulting
MichaelErichsen,Xact