Why a Toolbox?

Perhaps the question should be, why not? It’s an analogy used time and again for a set of software utilities that can be used for a specific purpose. Programmers and system administrators have used similar collections of tools for many years and, although some may be embedded in the integrated development environment (IDE), they usually include a range of general purpose utilities such as debuggers, documentation tools, various templates, and version control tools. The enterprise application manager (just like the system administrator) needs this wide range of tools to implement his or her management plans.

The resources inside this toolbox are intended to fit the most common use cases and situations, including both proactive and reactive work. In some cases, more utilities will be needed, but almost all of the tools discussed here can be used in a flexible manner to provide information in almost any scenario. It’s impossible to cover every potentially useful tool, of course, and therefore this discussion focuses on a core set of features, functions, capabilities, and services, and the detail in the appendix provides additional material.