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they already are, but actually most COBOL stuff is pretty safe as far as job security goes. As with anything, its not about the programming language, its about

they already are, but actually most COBOL stuff is pretty safe as far as job security goes. As with anything, its not about the programming language, its about the business context. COBOL outsourcing means having great documentation so they know what the fuck is actually going on in the codebase. Also, COBOL has less boilerplate than for example java. The boilerplate is not standardized and usually unique to each company, again highering the difficulty to outsource everything offshore. Most succesfull approach seems to be to import 10 indian guys on premise, and have them work along your existing team. Dont underestimate the effectiveness of a 59 year old cobol programmer who knows the program in and out, and knows exactly where to adapt something without breaking anything else. There are no dependency checks, linters or unit testing for most of these programs. You basically want 5 newbies working alongside one of these senior level programmers for a year or 2 before you confidently can let them retire.

mellavora 4y ago
Also don't underestimate the potential damage of NOT having that 59 year old programmer. talk to some people who work in banks, they have stories which could make your toes curl.
- ngcc_hk 4y ago
  Sometimes the user promote elsewhere and after a decade the only guy or ladies know what is going on is the IT lot. Have to advise them what to do, what not to and what is possible. They Ss try their new thing. Just break the system. The only way out is to redo the whole system sometimes. It is not ease.
Ekaros 4y ago
Not to forget the critical point that the 59 year old probably knows why something is done like it is better than most people in building. The code knowledge is secondary to the arcane domain knowledge.
rbanffy 4y ago
The big downside is that the companies that use COBOL tend to think of IT as a cost rather than an investment. They don't expect to get any competitive advantages from their technological infrastructure. I'm, in fact, surprised they never banded together into standardizing and sharing code and processes.
- analog31 4y ago
  I'm not a commercial developer, and when I see something branded as an "investment," it usually translates into "money pit." The country that's spending more on software development than any other in the world is growing at a rate of roughly 2%/year. Engineers tend to look askance at categorizing different kinds of money. Granted, if you work in a business that has "profit center" and "cost center" mentality, you want to be in the part of the business that the suits associate with the good kind of cost, rather than the bad, no disputing that. One reason why companies have unique code is that in fact the code reflects a business process, and they are in fact trying to compete via having better processes.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    >I'm not a commercial developer, and when I see something branded as an "investment," it usually translates into "money pit." >The country that's spending more on software development than any other in the world is growing at a rate of roughly 2%/year. What is the relationship here? Is this also the country that has the world’s biggest tech companies with the biggest growth in the world for the past 30 years?

mellavora 4y ago

Also don't underestimate the potential damage of NOT having that 59 year old programmer. talk to some people who work in banks, they have stories which could make your toes curl.

ngcc_hk 4y ago
Sometimes the user promote elsewhere and after a decade the only guy or ladies know what is going on is the IT lot. Have to advise them what to do, what not to and what is possible. They Ss try their new thing. Just break the system. The only way out is to redo the whole system sometimes. It is not ease.

Ekaros 4y ago

Not to forget the critical point that the 59 year old probably knows why something is done like it is better than most people in building. The code knowledge is secondary to the arcane domain knowledge.

rbanffy 4y ago

The big downside is that the companies that use COBOL tend to think of IT as a cost rather than an investment. They don't expect to get any competitive advantages from their technological infrastructure. I'm, in fact, surprised they never banded together into standardizing and sharing code and processes.

analog31 4y ago
I'm not a commercial developer, and when I see something branded as an "investment," it usually translates into "money pit." The country that's spending more on software development than any other in the world is growing at a rate of roughly 2%/year. Engineers tend to look askance at categorizing different kinds of money. Granted, if you work in a business that has "profit center" and "cost center" mentality, you want to be in the part of the business that the suits associate with the good kind of cost, rather than the bad, no disputing that. One reason why companies have unique code is that in fact the code reflects a business process, and they are in fact trying to compete via having better processes.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  >I'm not a commercial developer, and when I see something branded as an "investment," it usually translates into "money pit." >The country that's spending more on software development than any other in the world is growing at a rate of roughly 2%/year. What is the relationship here? Is this also the country that has the world’s biggest tech companies with the biggest growth in the world for the past 30 years?