Guides
Understanding legacy systems, with proof.
Practical answers to the questions teams ask when they inherit COBOL, JCL and DB2, each starting with the short answer.
- How do you document a COBOL system nobody fully understands?Start from the code, not from interviews: parse every program, copybook and job into facts that cite their source lines, link them into one map, record the gaps, and let your experts correct it.
- How do you map JCL job dependencies and dataset lineage?Read every job's steps and DD statements, resolve procedures and symbolic parameters, link programs to the datasets they read and write, and connect jobs through the datasets they share.
- How do you keep mainframe knowledge when the experts retire?Capture knowledge in a form tied to the code: a model built from the source, where every fact cites its lines, with your experts' corrections and notes stored beside those facts.
- Can AI explain COBOL without making things up?Yes, if the AI is not allowed to answer from memory: parse the code into facts first, give a model only bounded evidence, require a citation for every statement, and drop the ones that fail.
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