Published on 30-Nov-2012
"We continue to develop ways to utilize the Rational Automation Framework environment to meet the rapid deployment needs of our various product groups." - Antonio Pulice, manager, release management and quality assurance, Cars.com
Customer:
Cars.com
Industry:
Retail, Automotive
Deployment country:
United States
Solution:
Collaborative Lifecycle Management
IBM Business Partner:
Ascendant Technology, LLC
Overview
Headquartered in Chicago, Cars.com is a leading destination for online car shoppers, visited by more than 11 million users each month. The site offers credible and easy-to-understand information from consumers and experts that can help users formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. The site includes comprehensive pricing information, side-by-side comparison tools, photo galleries, videos, editorial content and a large inventory of new and used vehicles. Founded in 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures, LLC.
Business need:
To eliminate a backlog of projects and improve staff efficiency and morale, Cars.com wanted to overhaul its development processes, moving from waterfall methods to agile methodology.
Solution:
Working with IBM and IBM Business Partner Ascendant Technology, LLC, Cars.com implemented IBM Rational Build Forge and IBM Rational Automation Framework software.
Benefits:
Using the new platform, Cars.com company decreased the time to deploy releases by 77 percent. The company now averages 300 new product releases a year versus the 30 to 40 it deployed in the past.
Case Study
Headquartered in Chicago, Cars.com is a leading destination for online car shoppers, visited by more than 11 million users each month. The site offers credible and easy-to-understand information from consumers and experts that can help users formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. The site includes comprehensive pricing information, side-by-side comparison tools, photo galleries, videos, editorial content and a large inventory of new and used vehicles. Founded in 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures, LLC.
Overhauling development processes
Cars.com wanted to overhaul its development processes. Its existing waterfall development model required months of up-front planning and meetings, which led to a backlog of projects. Further, the Cars.com build and release process involved many manual steps that staff in multiple roles performed, making it highly error prone. Developers compiled and packaged their own applications. An application administrator would then release applications manually, using a list of steps outlined in a document.
Various IT groups handled application and system configurations manually, using inconsistently documented steps in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel documents. Preparation and planning for these deployments took hours or even days, requiring staff to work nights or weekends to complete them. Because there were so many manual steps required, errors were common, leading to wasted time, poor productivity and even potential revenue loss. And because of these issues, the company’s development staff was frustrated and burned out.
Creating a new build and release environment
Cars.com teamed up with IBM and IBM Business Partner Ascendant Technology, LLC to address these problems. After analyzing its needs, Cars.com implemented IBM® Rational® Build Forge® and IBM Rational Automation Framework software to create and support a new build and release environment. Cars.com made significant investments in IBM technology in the past, and it wanted a solution that would integrate easily with its existing applications. “We wanted something we could grow into and that would meet our current and future needs,” says Antonio Pulice, manager, release management and quality assurance, Cars.com.
Ascendant Technology worked with Cars.com for three months, helping with the installation, configuration and migration of build and release functionality for major Cars.com products. Ascendant Technology also provided customized training for release management and development staff at Cars.com, along with mentoring and documentation.
Ascendant Technology helped Cars.com by:
- Identifying applications and processes that the company could automate quickly
- Pinpointing existing scripts that the organization could use in conjunction with automation
- Estimating how long current processes took, broken down by tasks
- Providing mentoring and training on the Rational Build Forge and Rational Automation Framework products
- Educating the developer community on the Rational Build Forge application and the benefits of build and release automation
Accelerating build and release processes
With the Rational software providing the backbone for automation, Cars.com transitioned to agile methodology fairly easily. “The transition to agile was simple, requiring only minor process tweaks and enhancements,” says Pulice. The Cars.com product groups capitalize on the continuous integration capabilities of the Rational Build Forge application to quickly push releases to testing and production environments. Cars.com also automated all of its manual test cases and integrated them with Rational Build Forge software.
The Rational applications also help enable Cars.com teams to quickly create IBM WebSphere® software environments in under two weeks, including IBM WebSphere Portal, IBM WebSphere Process Server and IBM InfoSphere® DataStage® software. In the past, building and configuring these environments would have taken more than a month and numerous resources.
Previously, it took Cars.com at least 35 hours to perform 70 builds and releases. Using the new platform allows Cars.com to perform the same 70 builds and releases in just eight hours, or 77 percent less time. The company now averages 300 new product releases a year versus the 30 to 40 it deployed in the past. Cars.com reports that its staff is engaged and excited about the new platform, as well as eager to learn more about the capabilities it offers.
To date, Cars.com has migrated 75 percent of its existing applications to the Rational software framework, and it plans to expand the solution’s use in the future. “We continue to develop ways to utilize the Rational Automation Framework environment to meet the rapid deployment needs of our various Cars.com product groups,” says Pulice. “We see the solution evolving into a continuous delivery pipeline our product groups can rely on.”
Expediting agile transformation with confidence
Organizations adopt agile software delivery because it reduces cost and risk, improves quality and helps speed innovations to market with continuous delivery capabilities. Companies use agile methods to deliver simple web applications, enterprise multiplatform applications and embedded systems. The Rational solutions for agile transformation provide a practical path for training, coaching and tooling to support fast, effective adoption and scaling of agile practices.
For more information
To learn more about the IBM Rational Automation Framework or IBM Rational Build Forge software, please contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit the following websites:
ibm.com/software/rational/products/framework
ibm.com/software/awdtools/buildforge
Products and services used
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Software:
Rational Automation Framework for WebSphere, Rational Build Forge
Legal Information
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2012 IBM Corporation Software Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 Produced in the United States of America November 2012 IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Build Forge and Rational are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at “Copyright and trademark information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be changed by IBM at any time. Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates. The performance data and client examples cited are presented for illustrative purposes only. Actual performance results may vary depending on specific configurations and operating conditions. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided.