In the early stages of conference planning, we like to get as much session feedback as we can, straight from the community, mostly through community webcast polls which are open to everyone.
We thought we would share the results that informed our slate of sessions and hands-on training coming up in October. It’s always helpful to know what challenges and cutting-edge technology is of interest to fellow developers.
CA Plex
We asked what CA Plex session topics interest the community, and the favorite by far was Dynamic SQL with 40% of the vote. Performance optimization and Plex settings/options came in tied for second at 21%. A few wanted to know more about advanced components like calendar, gannt, etc.
With respect to Plex Modernization, webifying Plex was by far the most popular with web front ends at 33%, and web services integration coming in just behind it at 26%, for a total of 56% of respondents. Migrating from RPG/C++ to C#/Java was a popular response too, at 21%. The remainder wanted to see sessions on reporting and life cycle management.
We polled a range of other topics to gauge interest, including customer show and tell, speeding development, standards layers, security, and customer engagement/sms/email. Interest was spread fairly evenly with security coming in ahead at 26% and standards layers coming in last at 13%.
CA 2E
When asked which CA 2E session topics are of interest, Consuming JSON polled the highest by far at 42%. 132 column techniques came in second at 23%, and email options third at 16%. A. Group jobs and advanced 5250 UX techniques both came in last at 10% each.
We asked about Deep Dive topics and migrating to SQL came in way ahead at 63%, over advanced impact analysis (26%) and RPG vs COBOL (11%).
Our 2E modernization question again favors the web with web services (38%) and web option (23%) garnering 61% of the vote. Migrating from 2E to Plex was also of some interest at 28%, and 13% wanted to learn more about dicovering 2E business rules.
Sponsors
We asked which sponsor session topics are relevant, and SQL server came out in front at 26%. DB2 and iOS both came in second at 19% each, and power systems roadmap fourth at 17%.
Managed Services
We checked in with the community’s thoughts on managed services, and IBMi hosting took nearly half the responses, with Azure integration (29%), and Windows / Linux hosting (19%) coming in behind it.
Advanced Technology
Machine Learning came was the most popular response when asked about advanced techology topics the community would like to see covered, at 24%. Graph/NoSQL databases, robotic process automation, and software quality came up second with 18% for each. Business rules/process mapping and containerization took a smaller share.
Security
Security is a big concern in our modern times, and all three topics were fairly evenly spread across topics: data security/encryption, multi-factor authentication, and Single Sign On.
Software Development
On the topic of software development, most wanted to hear/learn about Agile/SCRUM methods at 38%, with the rest fairly evenly spread across functional/load testing, UX design, and device UX optimization.