I worked at an insurance company where a giant COBOL mainframe squatted in the middle of their data systems like a toad*. During the last major attempt to remo

I worked at an insurance company where a giant COBOL mainframe squatted in the middle of their data systems like a toad*. During the last major attempt to remove the system, they got close. A team of good engineers worked over two years painstakingly updating documentation, transferring and rebuilding systems, and got to the Go-No-Go meeting. They explained everything to the single SME in their 60's who knew best where the bodies were buried, and she seemed satisfied. When they got to the end of the Go-No-Go, she asked, "Where did you put our payroll?" COBOL literally sent everyone their paychecks. It was enough of a deathblow to find something that important had been overlooked, the project was abandoned. *Oracle Toad was in there too, but it felt snappy instead of squatty compared to the COBOL.