From Newsgroup: comp.lang.cobol
On 29/08/2017 11:52 PM,
docdwarf@panix.com wrote:
I was summoned to a meeting the other day and I listened to a repetition
of the Very Deep Concerns my client has about the fact that I am the only person who can do what I do.
My response was a repetition of 'Well, I'm more than happy to help train replacements but first... find me a couple-three folks with five years' of IBM mainframe experience.'
The reply was a snorted 'They don't make those any more and everyone who
has it is retired.'
'Yes, I've been saying that for fifteen years now.'
The talk then turned to 'well, all we gotta do is get someone, anyone, to shadow him... and then he'll shadow them...'
... and it just kind of... came out of me... '... yes, and if we do that until everyone is good and bored you'll have a few folks who can barely operate the system under the best of circumstances, and when a once-in-six-months problem arises the Payroll run will crash and folks depending on their checks will start to generate Insufficient Funds dings
on their accounts...
... and if you bring me someone who says 'I don't see what the trouble is, all I gotta do is run a program on a computer... now how do I do that on a mainframe?'...
... then I'll say 'Sorry, I can't teach you that, you have to go and learn
it someplace else.''
Someone scoffed 'Oh, it couldn't be *that* hard!' and I rejoined with 'Sure... tying your shoelaces isn't that hard, write me some user-doc to explain it to the barefoot.'
DD
It's really sad that a company would let things come to this pass. It
would be easy to say that they deserve what they are getting, but that
doesn't really help.
If they have taken the position to NOT migrate their mainframe systems
to a more modern platform then it is essential that they fully
understood what that would mean when guys like yourself are no longer available. They obviously haven't thought this through and now someone
has come along who realizes the danger.
I have seen several articles from mainframe managers who are wailing and gnashing their teeth because "all the mainframe guys are retiring or
dying, and we simply can't get people." (I mentioned it in passing in an article here:
https://dzone.com/articles/cretaceous-cobol-can-spawn )
It is a Management problem but they try and blame the programmers.
They won't invest in training (because once they're trained they'll go somewhere else), they won't get strategic advice and planning from
people who know about the industry (consultants are a rip-off...) and
they can't see past the immediate present where, as long as the invoices
and payroll are running OK, we're fine and don't need to spend any money.
I endorse your responses, Doc.
Pete.
--
I used to write COBOL; now I can do anything...
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