COBOL Maintenance at Marble Computer
COBOL maintenance is known as a software development model where highly collaborative teams and COBOL coders work on a small number of tasks at a time to transfer work from inception to production in very short time frames. The professionals at Marble Computer are equipped with the experience, tools, and skills to maintain and detect defects in COBOL code to ensure proper and efficient functioning of the language.
What A Customer Can Expect from COBOL Service Tools and Maintenance
Maintaining a COBOL program or application is an ongoing going process, sometimes referred to as the Application Life Cycle. The application that processes transactions is under constant change due to several factors. This includes, but is not limited to:
- • Changes in the computing environment
- • Software environment
- • New products and/or services
- • Government regulations
- • And other factors
Customers and vendors need software tools that make the maintenance of COBOL applications easier and faster. Most importantly, fixing COBOL applications is a costly process especially during workflow stoppages, such as Abends. Seeking COBOL maintenance services can prevent costs and time-consuming precedents.
Some Common Issues Clients Discover with COBOL
Since COBOL has been used for 60 years there are billions of lines of COBOL code currently in worldwide production. Estimates run as high as 250 billion lines of code. Documentation on these production programs has been lost or is out of date. Additionally, COBOL programmers who wrote the code are now retired or are working for other organizations.
COBOL is an easy programming language to code, test, and bring to production status. In some ways, it is self-documenting due to the fact that it utilizes English terminology. However, because it is simple to code COBOL, many programmers make code more complex than necessary. Many COBOL programs are between 1,000-5,000 lines of code. Some reach 20,000-50,000 lines. The larger the program the more complex and the more difficult it becomes to maintain.
One last and major issue with COBOL is a lack of interest in learning how to program in COBOL within the U.S and Canada. This is not prevalent in other countries. Therefore, a good portion of COBOL code is being maintained offshore by programmers in countries such as India, Brazil and even in US territories such as the Philippines.
Contact Marble Computer for COBOL Applications and Services Today
COBOL defects can worsen or become harder to work with the longer it is put off to the side. Marble Computer is here to apply effective approaches for COBOL maintenance and to further increase transfer knowledge. Contact us today to learn more about what our COBOL software products can provide.