Written by Yarille Ortiz, Senior Project Coordinator at the Linux Foundation
The Mentorship Program continues to be one of the most popular tools the Open Mainframe Project has to engage with students. Since it inception, this program has successfully provided more than 100 students with hands-on learning experience in Linux, open source, and mainframes that they can carry with them throughout their career path. Some even return to be mentors in our program!
This year, there are 10 mentorship opportunities for the summer, which starts on June 1-August 31, that are now currently available for applications on LFX. Our programs this year include Open Mainframe Projects such as COBOL Programming Course, Feilong, Galasa, Mainframe Modernization Working Group, Mainframe Open Education, Software Discovery Tool and Zowe.
The Open Mainframe Project 2024 Summer Mentorship Programs are:
Mentors:
- Sudharsana Srinivasan, IBM Z Influencer Program Manager, IBM
- Michael Bauer, Engineering Manager, Broadcom
- Ashis Naik Kumar, Graduate of the Open Mainframe Project Mentorship Program
Mentorship Description:
The chapter currently lacks a CI/CD process and tooling for COBOL. This mentorship opportunity will enable the student to learn about COBOL by bringing their DevOps practices and knowledge and improving the COBOL course for a better and wholesome learning experience for our learners.
The goal of this summer mentorship is to continue enhancing the Testing chapter in the COBOL Programming course, introduce CI/CD for COBOL application development using Jenkins, and update the course to gain value from the Zowe V3 release. This will ensure that we can provide our learners with modern DevOps practices. Apply here.
Improve Feilong Packaging Process
Mentors:
- Mike Friesenegger, Solution Architect, SUSE
- Dong Ma, Software Engineer, IBM
Mentorship Description:
Currently CI runs are done for pep8 and unit tests. There is no automated CD process. The mentee will develop an automated package build process in Open Build Service to address CD needs and improve CI/CD workflow for automated Feilong package builds. Apply here.
Galasa GitHub Actions Build Process
Mentors:
- Jade Carino, Software Engineer, IBM
- Mike Cobbett, Senior Software Engineer, IBM
Mentorship Description:
The Galasa build process currently uses Tekton and runs on IBM internal systems. It needs to be more open. Build results are difficult for non-IBM staff to see due to the access to those build systems.
Galasa code is spread over 12+ github projects in the galasa-dev github organisation, so we need a new build pipeline constructed using Github Actions for each of these, capable of handling main-branch and feature-branch/pull-request builds.
Galasa is an open-source Open Mainframe Project and Linux foundation incubator project. It is a ground-breaking tool used in test automation, to orchestrate the running of test cases with enterprise-level capabilities.
Galasa build infrastructure currently has a build process that is less than ideal. The mentee should be someone who is interested in CI/CD pipeline technology to help create a brand new set of build pipelines using Github actions on public Github. The work will be open source, visible to the world, will greatly enhance the productivity of the Galasa team, and will make it far easier for others to contribute to the project in the future.
Galasa is written in Go and Java, uses Docker, Gradle, and Maven, and runs on laptops or Kubernetes clusters, but no experience with these technologies is necessary. Apply here.
Mainframe Modernization White Paper
Mentors:
- Bruno Azenha, Red Hat, Inc.
- Misty Decker, Director of Application Modernization Product Marketing, OpenText
Mentorship Description:
Many conflicting points of view exist on the best way to modernize, causing confusion in the market and preventing any forward progress due to analysis paralysis. The mentee will publish a white paper on a mainframe modernization topic jointly determined by the mentee and the modernization working group. The student will need to work with mentors to identify a topic, research all available information, and write a white paper bringing a fair and balanced point of view.
Mainframe Modernization is a complex topic with many varying points of view. The Modernization Working Group was created to provide guidance to the many organizations worldwide trying to determine the best way to make their mainframe environments meet their changing business needs. We are launching an effort to create a series of white papers sharing a fair and balanced point of view on a variety of topics. This mentorship program will focus on whatever topic you are most excited about, for example, DevOps, cloud integration with mainframe, modernization techniques, and tooling, the business value of modernization, etc. We will teach you about mainframe modernization and help you choose a topic that interests you. Then you will research the topic and write a white paper which we will help publish and promote. There may be an opportunity for you to present your findings at virtual conferences. Apply here.
Mainframe Modernization Video Series
Mentors:
- Misty Decker, Director of Application Modernization Product Marketing, OpenText
- Bruno Azenha, Global Solutions Architect, Red Hat, Inc.
Many organizations are struggling to determine the best way to make their current mainframe applications meet the current and future needs of the business. The wide variety of opinions has caused many to feel overwhelmed and unable to move forward.
Mainframe modernization is a complex topic with many conflicting points of view. The modernization working group was created to provide a fair and balanced point of view and provide clarity to the many organizations trying to determine which path is best for them. Our goal is to create a series of short videos covering some of the many topics related to mainframe modernization, such as DevOps, integrating with the cloud, modernization techniques, data democratization, and more. We will find some of the world’s top experts on these topics and help you schedule a series of interviews. You would be the host, researching the topic ahead of time so you’re prepared with questions for your guests. The mentee will produce 8-12 videos, each a 30-minute interview with a different technical expert. Apply here.
Mainframe Open Education Project
Mentor:
- Lauren Valenti, Head of Mainframe Education and Customer Engagement, Broadcom
- J.J. Lovett, Head of Education and Customer Engagement, Mainframe Division, Broadcom
Mentorship Description:
Increasing awareness of the Mainframe Open Education program within the mainframe community and outside, reviewing content, and providing feedback and new ideas on what else our project can do to attract those who consume and contribute.
Mainframe Open Education is a community that focuses on ‘open sourcing’ mainframe learning roadmaps and community knowledge transfer. Mainframe Open Education’s mission is to deliver to mainframe users a convenient platform to create or donate learning tools, so we cultivate skills and allow for knowledge sharing and community contributions. This effort being a community-based program, is the differentiating feature, offering a distinctive difference from all other sources of education. It is the collective body of knowledge within our generous community that matters, creating a groundswell of people who are leading the way for future mainframe technicians.
The mentee selected with help increase awareness of the program within the mainframe community and outside. They will review the Mainframe Open Education content, providing feedback, and new ideas on what more our project can do to attract those to consume and contribute. Apply here.
Mentors:
- Elizabeth K. Joseph, Global Head, Open Source Program Office for IBM Z at IBM
- Divya Goswami, Student, University of Birmingham and Graduate of the Open Mainframe Mentorship Program
Mentorship Description:
The new React-based front end, developed in the summer of 2023, has been proposed but has not yet been reviewed or merged. We’re looking to work with a developer who can review and complete the work that began.
The mentee selected for this program will review the React-based front-end developed for the Software Discovery tool and suggest improvements to the documentation before it goes into production. This mentorship will also cover side-tasks that include improvements to onboarding documentation and data source updates. Apply here.
z/OSMF WorkFlow APIs for Zowe Java Client SDK
Mentor:
- Francesco Giordano, Software Engineer, Broadcom Corporation
Mentorship Description:
The mentee will implement all boilerplate code for z/OSMF Workflow API calls for the Zowe SDK for Java. Apply here.
Mentor: Leanid Astrakou, Software Engineer, Scrum Master, Rocket Software
Mentorship Description:
Zowe currently has no clear way to deliver extensions to users. Components of Zowe can be installed, and vendors from their own sites may package apps as extensions to the same Zowe. However, as an independent user, the only way to download and install extensions is manually through GitHub and NPM. The app store introduces a key piece of fundamental UX.
Zowe is an open, extensible set of APIs, tools, and visual interfaces to interact with the mainframe, closely resembling the core functionality of any OS today. Like any OS, it needs an app store to install extensions. Mentees will build upon existing work to polish a front-end (React/Node.js) and continue the groundwork of a highly secure back-end (C/metal C). The App Store will allow Zowe users to install extensions from a UI, connected to a registry, for example: on npm or from some secure remote location. Apply here.
Mentors:
- Vincent Terrone, Enterprise Architect, Vicom Infinity, Inc.
- Fernando Zangari, IT Specialist, Kyndryl
Mentorship Description:
ZEBRA is a revolutionary performance monitor that uses Grafana and Prometheus to display System Z metrics written in JavaScript running under Node.js. There are currently hundreds of metrics to choose from, making selection a difficult process. Also, these metrics must be put in JSON, which adds to the complexity. The mentee will assist in modernizing this process by creating a stand-alone JavaScript application that will allow users to choose what metrics they need and create this JSON file that ZEBRA uses. Apply here.
Apply to these Open Mainframe Mentorships here today!
Zebra Plugin for Hitachi Mainframe Storage
Mentors:
- Len Santalucia, CTO, Vicom Infinity, Inc.
- Joe Carlisle, Hitachi
Mentorship Description:
The selected mentee will assist in developing an on-prem solution for monitoring mainframe performance using HMAI CSV data as input. Apply here.
Apply to these Open Mainframe Mentorships here today!
