1 / 20

Information Systems Programs become Accredited - COBOL in Crisis

Information Systems Programs become Accredited - COBOL in Crisis. Bob Roggio – University of North Florida James Comer - Texas Christian University Pam Brauda – University of North Florida. Outline. 1. Background: COBOL Dominance in the Corporate IT World

kaleb
Download Presentation

Information Systems Programs become Accredited - COBOL in Crisis

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Information Systems Programs become Accredited - COBOL in Crisis Bob Roggio – University of North Florida James Comer - Texas Christian University Pam Brauda – University of North Florida

  2. Outline • 1. Background: COBOL Dominance in the Corporate IT World • 2. COBOL: Problems and Trends in Academe’ • 3. IS Accreditation and COBOL Instruction • 4. Facts and Inferences from Accreditation – The Real Future of COBOL • 5. Conclusions

  3. 1. COBOL Dominance in the Corporate IT World • IT successfully transitioned billions of LOC to be Y2K compliant • Faculty/IT managers must now reconcile COBOL’s role for at least 10-15 years • Unimaginable dependence on COBOL was clearly revealed in $300 - $600 billion spent on Y2K issues. • Insights gained into pervasiveness of COBOL and to corporate ‘bottom line.’

  4. COBOL Dominance in the Corporate IT World - Today • Stern, Stern and Ley: (2003) • 150-250 billion lines of code. • In DOD: 59% of all IS applications using COBOL • 85% of world’s business data systems written in COBOL • Estimate that 35% of all new business application development – in COBOL • Legacy Reserve: (2003) • CICS volume (e.g. COBOL-based ATM transactions) grew 50% in four years from 20 billion (1998) to 30 billion (2003)

  5. COBOL Dominance in the Corporate IT World - Today and Tomorrow • Research by Legacy Reserves: (2003) • “Integration [of object-oriented and web-based features] with Legacies is the number one concern of IT managers in 2003;” • “The most highly paid programmers in the next ten years are going to be COBOL programmers who know the Internet.” • Stern, Stern, and Ley: (2003) • Annual growth of COBOL code over the next four years is projected to be five billion lines.

  6. 2. COBOL – Problems and Language Trends in Academe’ - Yesterday • 1995 – C++ offered in 60%; 53% in 1998 (largely “C”) • 1995 – COBOL offered in 90%; 53% in 1998 1995 - COBOL OO – 0%; 7% in 1998. 1995 – Java – 0%; 43% in 1998 1995 – Visual Basic – 59%; 70% in 1998. (especially “MIS”)

  7. COBOL – Problems and Language Trends in Academe’ – Today • Numbers are getting worse as programs clamor to espouse the latest techniques, methodologies, and development tools. • Network programming; security; database • Client-server – web-based applications • Reusability and component-based software development • Rapid Application Development

  8. COBOL – Problems and Language Trends in Academe’ – Today • We are in an “…era when COBOL programming is about as ‘uncool’ as a graduate can get.”(Newing, 2003) • An interesting theory contributing to the demise of COBOL and rise of languages such as Java is: • “…[is] simply because [languages] like C and Java are so convoluted that they require lots of books and magazines and web sites dedicated to explaining and supporting them, so they have a high perceived use, where COBOL ‘just runs’ and doesn’t really need that kind of infrastructure associated with it. (Gordon, 2003)

  9. COBOL – Problems and Language Trends in Academe’ – Today Summary • Cause for alarm for many world-wide is apparent. • Trends for COBOL instruction rapidly diminishing • Modern features of COBOL 2002 rarely taught • Leveraging COBOL for internet applications are minimally (if at all) communicated • Faculty and student interest in teaching COBOL continues to wane, generally in favor of instruction in the more exciting and newer technologies • Little evidence that this trend for reduced/eliminated COBOL instruction in most programs will slow down.

  10. 3. IS Accreditation and COBOL Instruction • 2001 – 2002 ABET/CAC Accreditation Cycle • One pilot program – Pace University (New York City) • 2002 – 2003 ABET/CAC Accreditation Cycle • Full cycle – six additional programs accredited: • Robert Morris University (Moon Township, PA) • University of South Alabama (Mobile, AL) • University of North Florida (Jacksonville, FL) • Illinois State University (Bloomington-Normal, IL) • Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) (Richmond, VA) • Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA)

  11. Brief Background: Drafts of IS Criteria • Presented at many conferences and included: • SIGCSE, FIE, AMCIS, IAIM, ICIS, ISECON, ICIS, and IACIS which include several, if not all of the IS organizations. • Web surveys - with over 300 respondents - undertaken to gain additional buy-in and feedback. • Comprehensive efforts undertaken to create the current IS Criteria and to gather agreement within the IS community.   • For our study, every attempt to gain access to correct data was made: • Web sites, email, phone calls, catalogs, and more… • Many programs are in a state of flux and there is lag time between implementation of changes and course catalogs.

  12. 4. Facts and Inferences from Accreditation – and the Real Future of COBOL • Two (of seven) require COBOL: • University of North Florida and Illinois State Univ. • COBOL – optional • Robert Morris University – may take COBOL as a language option, but others are available • COBOL unavailable or being eliminated • University of South Alabama • (used to offer; contact person lamented its demise…) • Virginia Commonwealth • Pace University, and • Drexel University

  13. More Facts and Inferences from Accreditation – The Real Future of COBOL • Main language: • Java and C++ - actually rather close. • All programs have a strong database component – SQL, etc. • A couple of programs offer Artificial Intelligence (electives) so perhaps Lisp, Prolog • Some include courses in Internet Programming and to a lesser extent VB

  14. Interesting Observations • Programs housed in diverse academic units • One in a college with engineering (UNF) • One in a school of business (VCU) • Two IS programs offered in same unit as computer science (all others offered computer science in a different academic unit) • Also noticeable: Trend for separate colleges of schools for IS and IS related programs: • University of South Alabama • Pace University • Drexel University • University of North Florida (formerly)

  15. Accreditation and COBOLWhat Accreditation Does Not Do: • There is NO CASUAL RELATIONSHIP between accreditation and the decline of COBOL instruction… • Neither ABET/CAC accreditation process nor the information systems Criteriacause programs to directly reorient their curricula.

  16. Accreditation and COBOLWhat Accreditation Can Do: • BUT: for the many programs seeking accreditation, accredited programs will serve as models of successful accreditation efforts. • Many inferences can be drawn from these. • Specific inferences on programming languages can be made. • Everything about these programs will be viewed by many schools planning to seek IS accreditation. • Two of seven accredited programs require COBOL • Programs ‘on the bubble’ re: COBOL have more fuel. • Authors feel the continuing spiral in COBOL will continue and seem to be codified by these accreditation actions.

  17. 5. Conclusions • COBOL will continue to underpin much of business data processing for a number of years to come • Academe’ is not heeding the words of large sections of the corporate community • Programs recently accredited by ABET appear to be codifying academic trends • Future Accreditation Cycles will provide more data • On the horizon: Accreditation of Information Technology (IT) programs – by ABET/CAC • Criteria? In general, more applied, less theoretical, but NOT KNOWN at this time. • The new crisis: not Y2K, but ‘Post Y2K.’

  18. Thank you! I will send a copy of these overheads to you if you email me at broggio@unf.edu

More Related