Pipeline readiness checklist for a mainframe application

Source

• All active source, copybooks and JCL are in Git; nobody edits the PDS directly.
• .gitattributes sets the right code page for each file type.
• A branching model is agreed and written down.

Build

• Compile options are shared configuration, not copied into each job.
• Copybook dependencies are tracked, so changes rebuild every affected program.
• Return-code thresholds are agreed per step.

Test

• At least one automated test runs on every build.
• Test data is synthetic or masked, and loaded fresh for each run.
• Pipeline test credentials have no production access.

Deploy

• Each build produces a versioned artifact that is promoted unchanged.
• DB2 binds and CICS NEWCOPY/PHASEIN are part of the automated deploy.
• Rollback has been rehearsed in a test environment.
• Approvals and deploy records are kept for audit.