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COMPUTERWORLD
T H E N E W S PA P E R F O R I T L E A D E R S

SEPTEMBER 23, 2002

W W W. C O M P U T E R W O R L D . C O M

VOL. 36

NO. 39

FRANK HAYES FRANKLY SPEAKING

Paradigm Lost?

S COBOL DEAD? Not if you believe the readers who wrote to object after I suggested in a recent column

that some IT practices and job titles will go the way of punched cards, Cobol and green screens.
One reader told me, Cobol is alive and healthy. Oh, we use Web front ends, all of our data is on
Oracle and our development staff uses a combination of desktop and server tools in their work. But
the industrial-strength grunt work is Cobol on Unix servers. We havent found anything that can
handle batch data in a more effective manner.
I suggest you check
the original paradigms
your facts, wrote another
lost.
reader. Despite the barIT shifted to packaged
rels of ink claiming otherapps because they were less
wise, the business world
expensive (we hoped) and
still runs on Cobol. Still
more standardized than the
another said, There conaging custom Cobol code
tinues to be this percepthey replaced. After all,
tion in the media that
accounting is accounting.
Cobol is dead. Its very
Inventory is inventory.
much alive and very much
Billing is billing. Why reinbeing evolved. Take note
vent these routine business
FRANK HAYES , Computerof the vendors (Fujitsu
wheels over and over?
world s senior news columand Acucorp, for example)
Why indeed? There was
nist, has covered IT for more
who have now ported this
a reason companies built
than 20 years. Contact him at
frank_hayes@computerworld.com.
language to the Linux opthose custom systems in
erating system. I dont
the first place. They wantthink its going away anytime soon.
ed to gain a competitive advantage by
OK, lets be clear on this: Cobol isnt
fine-tuning their business processes in
dead. Its not at deaths door. Its not
ways their competition couldnt easily
even sick. Its still an IT workhorse.
match.
But lets be clear on this, too: As reThe classic example is MCIs original
cently as a decade ago, Cobol was the
Friends & Family program from just a
king of large-scale development. Now
decade ago. It was essentially a specialits not. And Cobols throne wasnt
ized billing system for long-distance
usurped by PL/1 or any other competcalls. AT&Ts oh-so-ordinary billing
ing language. Cobol lost its place to SAP system couldnt track calling circles
and PeopleSoft and Siebel and Baan and the way MCIs custom system could. So
other packaged enterprise applications.
MCI got its foothold in long distance by
IT shops stopped building those big
customizing a routine accounting
projects and started buying. Our paraprocess.
digm shifted, and Cobol lost its place at
You cant get that kind of advantage
the core of corporate IT.
with an enterprise package. Any comDead? No. Demoted from king to hard- petitor can buy the same software.
working commoner? Yes.
Whatever you do to specially configure
Now, heres a more interesting quesit, your competition can do the same.
tion: Could King Cobol ever come back?
If you want any chance at a unique
Answer: Maybe. Remember, just bebusiness advantage, youll have to
cause a paradigm shifts doesnt mean
build it yourself. And that means

build-it-yourself enterprise applications

just might make a comeback.
Yes, that would be another paradigm
shift. CEOs and deep-thinking business gurus would have to decide that
theres a limit to the advantages of
cost-cutting and that the new way to
get competitive advantage from IT is
pursuing unique business processes
that only custom enterprise apps can
deliver.
That wont come this year not
in this economy. But watch for it.
Paradigms keep shifting. And with
modern design tools and development
techniques, and without the albatross
of decades-old legacy code thats a
nightmare to maintain, Cobol wouldnt
be a bad pick as the language of choice
for the next wave of big custom development projects. After all, its mature.
Its familiar. It can do the job.
And who knows? Commoner Cobol
just might have a shot at becoming the
king of corporate IT all over again.

Developer Tools Group

3055 Orchard Drive
San Jose, CA 95134
Toll free: (800) 545-6774
Phone: (408) 428-0300
Fax: (408) 456-7272
Email: cobol@netcobol.com
Web: http://www.netcobol.com

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