Q&A

Question:       What will this course do for my COBOL developers?

Answer:          Our intention is that a COBOL developer who completes our class will have a good grounding in all the technologies involved with building and deploying web database transactions using HTML/Javascript front-ends and Java Servlets using JDBC or SQLJ to access relational data. We introduce Object-Orientated concepts, UML, and EJBs. After completing the class, the students should be ready to tackle projects with some mentoring support assuming they will be using some form of framework/code patterns that supplies the infrastructure code.   

Question:       How likely is it that I can convert my COBOL developers to Java?

Answer:          I'm sure that you have seen reports and read estimates of between 6 months and 18 months for a COBOL programmer to become as proficient in Java as they were in COBOL. Other reports have estimated that as many as 90% of COBOL programmers will not be able to make the transition. We feel that these reports and estimates have approached the problem from the wrong direction. COBOL programmers currently do not design new systems from scratch, nor have they memorized all COBOL and CICS syntax. They are very familiar with the development and deployment environment, and know how to apply business logic to programs that conform to a well-understood framework. If programmers are trained in the web development environment, and supplied with a Java framework, we believe that they can rapidly become productive.

Question:        I’ve heard that COBOL developers don’t take well Object-Orientated techniques, what’s your impression? 

Answer:          We believe that OO programming is not too large a stretch for most COBOL developers.  OO Analysis, on the other hand, is like any previous analysis and modeling methodology - not many developers want or need to invest the effort to become proficient. Developers who currently do some form of analysis and modeling, including ERDs, should be introduced to OO modeling once they become comfortable with the web development environment.

Question:       What approach do you suggest to get COBOL developers proficient in web development and Java, in particular?

Answer:          First, get the developers comfortable using the web development environment (HTML, Java, web-servers, application servers, Servlets, JDBC, etc.). Let them get some success and experience deploying web-based data-entry and list/update applications with an existing or new relational database.

Secondly, (if appropriate), introduce EJBs via mentoring. Using EJBs are an incremental step from Servlets for a developer, but they have some major design and deployment issues. If your deployment environment supports EJBs, you should introduce them via mentoring on a project.

Next, use mentoring to perform OO modeling and UML on a project that does not yet have a data model. Not all developers need or want to be involved in OO modeling, so this should be done with the developers/analysts who would normally design the logical data model.

Question:        I’m between a rock and a hard place. I’ve got domain experts experienced in COBOL development, but all my upcoming projects call for web-based solutions. I don’t have any lead time, minimal training budget and oh yes the project timeframes are shrinking. What do I do?

Answer:          Mentoring and reuse is probably your best chance. If you can build a project’s infrastructure from existing code patterns, you solve many of your problems. The bulk of the code is built for you, up to 90% in most cases. The pre-tested infrastructure code handles system navigation, database I/O, error handling, etc. allowing your domain experts to concentrate on solving the business issues. The Java code required to support the project’s business logic is usually much simpler to write than the underlying infrastructure code. You will need a mentor, who can recognize when and where to use code patterns, and has experienced in developing web systems.