Design, test, and validation of the Application System/400 through early user involvement

The Application System/400™ (AS/400™) is the culmination of a development effort requiring seven million lines of code. Key challenges to its development were those of ensuring that the system had been designed correctly and thoroughly tested, that IBM Business Partners were ready for its introduction together with their applications, and that IBM marketing representatives and systems engineers were trained and knowledgeable on the system. This paper discusses how these challenges were met through the involvement of customers, Business Partners, vendors, and systems engineers in the development of the AS/400 system so as to positively affect its design and quality.