IBM System 370
MGMT 341
Fadi Sayegh
“System 370”
Abdullmumin Ibrahim
Ibrahim Musa Adam
Saeed Malhooz
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IBM System 370
Table of content
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Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………………………1
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………2
Body……………………………………………………………………………………………………….3
Projects in Organizations ………………………………………..…………..……..3.1
Evolution of project management in IBM………………………..…………….3.2
Project life cycle…………………………………….………………………………...…..3.3
Project Management drivers in IBM system 370………………………..….3.4
Project objectives of IBM system 370……………….……………………….….3.5
Management changes………………..…………………………………………………3.6
Strategic management and project selection………………………..…….4.0
Nature of Project selection model………………………………………………….4.1
Nature of Project selection model methodology……………………..…..…4.2
Risk and Uncertainty management………………………………………………….4.3
Project Portfolio………………………………….…………………………………..…..….4.4
The Project Manager……………………………………..……………………….…….5.0
Project Manager………………………………………………….………………………....5.1
Project Organization………………………………………………..……………….…...6.0
Type of organization………………………………………………………..……….…..…6.1
Planning the work activity……………………………………………….……….……7.0
Objective of system integration…………………………………………………...….7.1
Project control……………………………………………………………..…………......8.0
Asset conservation…………………………………………………..………………………8.1
Project termination…………………………………………………………………………..8.2
Conclusion……………………………………………………………….……………………………..….9.0
References…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..10.0
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IBM System 370
1.0 Abstract
This paper introduces IBM System 370 with the important elements of project
managements. This paper contains the following sections: introduction, projects in
organizations, strategic management, project selection, the project manager, project
organization, planning the work activity, project control, evaluation and termination and
finally conclusion of the project.
2.0 Introduction:
“Project management is a methodical approach to planning and guiding project
processes from start to finish. According to the Project Management Institute, the processes
are guided through five stages: initiation, planning, executing, controlling, and closing” (project
management). It is important to note that project management can be implemented on almost
all types of projects. Therefore, Project management is largely used to control projects that are
technology related. The following benefits of project management are the reasons why project
management is used on technology project. Better efficiency in delivering services, enhance
customer satisfaction, enhanced performance, Improved growth and development within your
team, Greater standing and competitive edge, Opportunities to expand your services, Better
Flexibility, Increased risk assessment, Increase in Quality, Increase in Quantity” (The Top Ten
Benefits of Project Management)
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IBM System 370
3.1Projects in Organizations
3.2 Evolution of System 370
System 370 evolved due to the need for software programs to be reused on new
hardware components such as the mainframes. For approximately twenty year life time the
original system 370 went through various architectural improvement. The first and most
essential change was virtual memory introduction. In 1972, virtual memory was first made
available through IBM’s system 370 advanced function” announcement (Knol). IBM had first
decided to exclude virtual storage from System 370 line. The following includes the August 2
1972 announcement:
 All System 370 hardware except the original model 155 and 165 had address relocation
 They had four new operating system
 It is essential to note that before the announcement virtual memory had been
implemented on System 370 hardware (Knol).
3.3 Project life cycle
According to the student textbook Project Management “Most projects go through
similar stages from the path origin to completion” (Meredith, Mental, 14). These stages below
comprises the project life cycle, conception, Selection, planning and termination.
Conception: The stake holders of the project System 370 came up with an idea to invent
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IBM System 370
A system that has an extendable memory addresses which can go beyond the systems main
storage by using secondary storage which is managed by system software. This is done in a way
that all the designated storage is treated by the programs as a main memory which is
addressable.
Selection: IBM had many ongoing projects but decided to pick on developing systems that are
backward compatible, reusable software and memory addressable. System 360 architecture
brought this dream through. The predecessor of system 360 which is system 370 kept the
architecture. The selection of this project was based on the fact that it will reduce cost of
producing software that is compatible with new hardware. Most seniors of an organization
have their eye on visible projects; therefore the visibility of system 370 was high as most senior
officials will have their eye on the project.
Planning: In the reader’s digest (March 1997, p.49) Peter Druke said “plans are only good
intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” It is known that the more time
one spends on planning the less time is needed for implementation.
In the project system 370, the plan was designed in such a way that the project outcome
meets the parent organization as shown by the project portfolio and the strategic process used
to approve the project. Due to the fact that project is carried out in an environment of
uncertainty, the plan includes allowances for risk and features that enable it to be adaptive. As
a software company IBM developed a special approach for determining the performance of the
project which is known as requirement formulation. This enables the project team to work with
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IBM System 370
the customer in order to elaborate on suggestions that will improve the product. IBM also
created baseline schedule, development and testing schedule and assembly schedule.
The project manager was authorized to spend money, ask for resources, direct activities
and start the project. The project plan contain the over view, objectives, general approach,
schedule, resources e.t.c. IBM made a schedule which was converting their project action plan
into an operating time table. This serves as their tool for monitoring project activities.
According to Jack R. Samuel J, most project management fall under “go-no-go control” (Project
Management). This kind of control enables testing to see of some preconditions have been met
due to the fact that the project plan beget and schedule are control documents the Project
manage has a pre designed control system that uses mile stones as his control system.
Termination: The project was terminated by extinction. This is to say that the project was
successfully completed and the family of the architecture continues with system 390.
The project life cycle of System 370 follows a regular life cycle of a project. The stages in
a project life cycle include the definition stage, the planning stage, the implementation stage
and the delivery stage. The definition stage consists of the goal, specification and scope. The
main goal of system 370 is compatibility and reuse of code. According to Knol ”Great care was
taken to ensure that further modification to the architecture will remain compatible at least as
far as non privileged programs are concerned.“
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IBM System 370
3.4 Project drivers in System370
Speed to market: One of the goals of IBM is to be at the number one position in
mainframe market. The invention of System 370 maintained this goal, according to
Organizational changes for enterprise growth “Being at the forefront of new market was
important but equally critical was account control: retaining and migration existing customers
to new products” (All Business).
Cost effective: The cost of mainframe computers was very high in the 70’s. The concept
of reusability of software, backward compatibility and virtual memory storage all contributed to
drop in mainframe computer price.
Complexity and uniqueness of innovation: IBM promised reusability of software
programs which was a unique technology in the computer world during the 1970’s. (IBM)
Distribution and expansions of enterprise: IBM is a vase company which has branches
all over the world including Africa, America, Asia pacific, and Europe. IBM took advantage of
these locations to distribute System 370 to all the regions around the world. The link below has
the list of regions and countries all around the world.
Business model reinvention: IBM is a company that concentrates on customer
satisfaction therefore; the company had to go through several business model reinventions.
According to the article Organizational change for enterprise growth, “the main aim of this is to
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IBM System 370
refine customer accusation and retention. In addition, IBM took advantage of segmenting its
marker into different products and services it offers. According to the article All Business
“Market innovation was an important aspect of IBM’s turnaround by market innovation we
refer to how the company change the way it segmented its market, defined compelling user
need and frustration, and drove these into new product design in good hard ware and
software” (All Business).
3.5 Objectives of System 370
Price: F. J. Rogers said “we have achieve great improved performance by putting much of the
advance technology of IBM’s ultra high performance computers within the reach of medium
and large scale computer users” (System 370 Announcement).
Compatibility: F. J. Rogers said “we have achieved compatibility since System 360 users will be
able to run most of their existing programs on the system without change” (System 370
Announcement).
Performance: In order to illustrate both system 370 performance and economy Mr. F. J. Rogers
noted that “the new model 165 operates up to five times faster internally than system 360
model 65. Yet the users equipment cost to achieve the increased performance level is relatively
modest in comparison with the gain in processing capability” (System 370 Announcement).
IBM’s main objective is to supply customers with effective and efficient products. IBM focuses
on the backset of devices from the customer perspective and develops on it. One of
development is in virtual storage memory in System 370 model 158 and 168. The article “New
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IBM System 370
Products” talks about the two new models introduced under system 370. These models are 158
and 168. The new models have virtual storage. “The value of virtual memory storage is that it
allows concurrent processing of many computer programs.” Therefore, “Eliminated is the
problem of one program blocking out other programs” (New Products, 140). For example, there
are three lines of code to be processed “first line has 20 characters, second line has 40
characters and third line has 30 characters making a total of 90 characters. But the system can
only process 85 characters at a time. Therefore the three lines cannot be processed
concurrently” (New Products, 140). The solution that model 158 and 168 brought is the “ability
of the compute to processes these lines in sequential manner” (New Products, 140). “John
Reed, the product administrator of IBM’s large systems market department, Data processing
department cites the following as the advantages of virtual memory:’
1. For application designers it furnishes one initial design not one per system.
2. It gives a superior testing environment and therefore a better turnaround time.
3. For operational personals it gives specified scheduling, accommodation of rush jobs’”
(New Products, 140).
Another objective of system 370 is to maintain a new architecture created by G. M. Amdahl,
G. A. Blaauw, F.P. Brooks, Jr. The architecture was to redefine the way mainframes were
manufactured giving consideration to software development and hardware that carry the
software. The project of System 370 was the first mainframe to implement this architecture.
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IBM System 370
3.6 Management changes
After the production of system 370, approximately twenty years lifetime, the original
system 370 line of mainframe went through architectural improvements. The most essential
change was the creation of virtual memory as discussed in the objectives of the project above.
This feature was made available in 1972 through IBM’s “system 370” advanced function.
Initially IBM had made a verdict to remove virtual storage from system 370 line. In august 7
1972 IBM announced the following “Address relocation hardware on all system 370 except the
original model of 155 and 165” (Knol)
“Shortly after the August 2, 1972 announcement, DAT box (Address relocation
hardware) upgrade for system 370 – 166 and 370 – 165 were announced but were available
only for purchase by customers who already own system 370 -155 or 370 -165” (Knol).
Latter architectural changes primarily involve expansion in memory (central storage) –
both physical memory and virtual memory hyped to support larger workloads for more storage.
4.0 Project Selection Model:
According to the student textbook Project Management “there are two basic types of
project selection (numeric and non-numeric)” (Jack R. Samuel J). IBM used non-numeric models
for its system 370 project. Below are the non-numeric models used by IBM:
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IBM System 370
 Sacred cow: According to Jack R. and Samuel J. “In this case the project is suggested by
senior and powerful officials in the organization.” When this happens, the employees
obey the senior and powerful official by investigating his command therefore leading to
the creation of a project. It is important to note that the project is “sacred” because it
will be maintained until it is concluded successfully or the boss makes a verdict that the
idea is a failure and terminates it. IBM used a functional organizational structure in the
project System 370. Hence, since functional organizational structure was used on the
project System 370 and deals with hierarchy. The boss suggested and initiated the
project to be done. Therefore, the sacred cow non-numeric model was implemented.
 Competitive necessity: According to the article Manufacturing Mainframes, “IBM
dominated the market for data processing industry in US and had a strong position in
Europe in three decades prior to digital computing in 1955”(Jeffrey R. Yost). There is no
doubt that being at the forefront of new technology was very essential to IBM. Hence,
to maintain their competitive position in the industry, IBM came up with project System
370. This system had competitive edge such as full support for virtual memory,
backward compatibility, code reusability, standard dual process capability and 128 bit
floating point arithmetic.
 Product line extension: In the article Central Processing Unit, “The IBM system 370 was
a model range of IBM mainframes announce in June 1970 as a successor of 360 families.
The series maintained backward compatibility with the s 370, allowing an easy migration
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IBM System 370
path for customers; this, plus improved performance were the dominate themes of the
project announcement (Absolute Astronomy). This product is judge to the degree on
which it fits the product line, strengthens a weak link and extends the line in a desirable
and new direction. It is important to know that often profitability is not the main focus
in this situation. Often decision makers act on the believe about what will be the likely
outcome on the total system performance if this new product is added to the line.
Therefore because of the
4.3 Risk and uncertainty management:
According to the article Business History “IBM pronounced its new computer range
system 360 in April 1964, and the announcement was argued the most high-risk decision ever
taken by a major company in recent times, “you bet your companies”, the journalists called it.”
System 360 was the predecessor of system 370. System 370 was the building block of backward
compatibility. It was the first system of its kind in 1970’s (Michel French).In addition “system
360 was to adopt a single architecture for a range of computers, from smallest to the largest
that would replace all IBMs seven existing computer families” (Michel French). It was a classic
case of all one eggs in one basket. If the strategy succeeded, it would greatly reduce marketing,
manufacturing and development cost and makes IBM hugely profitable. If the strategy fails the
company would probably never recover. The strategy worked and between 1964 and 1970 IBM
nearly tripled its turnover and doubled its work force to a total of 2690000 employees. The
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IBM System 370
range was reduced as system 370 in 1970 and 360 architecture still accounts for three quarter
of the mainframe computer market today.
5.0 Project manager: Fredrick P. Brook’s Jr.
In the article by IBM Builders Reference room, “The team that Brooks assembled went
on to develop the System/360, one of the most important technological developments of the
20th century” (IBM) The development of this technology was of great significance to system
370. According to the article “Anything you can do, I can do better” Brook’s invented the
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IBM System 370
“Mythical man-month.” The law states that “Adding manpower to a late software project
makes it later.” Brook’s invented computer Architecture that aid in reusing software packages
in new hardware. The book covers the importance of an architecture that will reduce
redundancy in computer programming and software development. The termination of system
360 continued with the family of systems to be developed. Fredrick continued with IBM to
continue with the family of the systems. According to the article by IBM Builders Reference
room , “After serving as project manager for System/360, Fred Brooks took over the
responsibility for the development of the 360 family's critical operating system, OS/360” (IBM).
6.0 Project Organization in IBM
According to the article of North Eastern University “Organizational structure is the
manner in which an organization arranges or rearranges itself“. Note that in a given company
that is a lag company (a company that composes of ten to fifteen thousand employees) do not
stick to a certain organizational structure. They might benefit from various structures
depending on a circumstance. It can be said that in system 370 used functional structure, this
can be inferred from the article Organizational Changes for Enterprise Growth “in system 390
IBM used metrics” (All Business). This was as a result of “no executive want to take
responsibility for such a product unless he or she was told to do so, even then they tried to put
it on some bodies plate”
7.0 System integration
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IBM System 370
In order to enhance integration of products line development teams and subsystem
teams IBM established empowered program managers. Although these teams report to a single
executive they also report to both product line and subsystem directors. It is clear that the
program managers ate the “glue” between specific products and platform subsystems.
Therefore the program managers make the architecture stick (All Business).
4.4 Project Portfolio
To enhance management IBM created an integrated management portfolio team. This
team consists of division executive; the team has the responsibility of marketing finance and
system R&D (Research and Development). This executive division is multi functional and is in
charge of the divisions P&L (Portfolio and Loss statement). The executive division executive put
resource allocation in balance between both current and future projects and makes sure the
organizational structures and processes are strictly adhered to (All Business).
8.0 Project Control
According to the student textbook Project Management the two funder mental
objectives of control are result regulation through changes of activities and administration of
organizational assets. (Meredith, Manthel, p.475). The project manager Brook’s was attentive
to both regulation and conservation. In addition he guards the physical assets of the
organization, the human resources and financial resources.
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IBM System 370
8.1 Asset conservation
Physical assets: In order to control the physical asserts he planned the timing of physical assets
maintenance, replacement as well as the quantity of maintenance.
Financial assets: Both financial control and conservation regulation are well known as
techniques for financial control. These includes project budget, current assets in capital
investment control. The accounting control of entry does these controls through audits and
analysis. Since this function is very essential Brooks strictly made sure that this was represented
on the project team.
Human resource: Administration of human resource has to do with controlling as well as
maintaining the growth of employees. Therefore, projects give the opportunity for encouraging.
Brooks as a project manager encourage and motivated the group of people involved in building
the architecture of IBM system 360 and its successors.
8.2 Project Termination:
There are different termination strategies in project management. These include
termination by extinction, termination by addition and termination by starving. According to
the students textbook Project Management, Termination by extinction occurs when the project
is successfully completed or if the project fails. Termination by addition is a form of termination
where by the project team becomes a part of the formal organization. IBM uses the following
termination method on project system 370:
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IBM System 370
Termination by extinction: In 1990 the system 370 line got replaced by system 390. In addition
the architecture was also renamed fro ESA 370 to EAS 390 not withstanding this rename was
basically don for market change not for major architectural change. It is important to note that
the aim of the project is to maintain a constant architecture in the family of systems (Knol).
9.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, the projects are judge based on its delivery. System 370 can be said to be
delivered successfully because it kept the promise of delivering a backward compatibility,
software reusability and virtual memory addressing.
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IBM System 370
10.0 References
http://www.ibm.com/planetwide/
http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/2350.aspx
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Central_processing_unit
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