COBOL Assessment and Migration: The Four Questions Before You Rewrite Anything

COBOL estate assessment requires a methodology that distinguishes complexity from volume. Lines of code counts are easy to generate and meaningless as a migration planning input. The program call graph — which programs call which, how deep the chain goes — and the copybook data structure map — how many programs share a common data definition and what breaks if it changes — are the actual complexity measures. Batch job dependency chains determine migration sequencing. The four questions that determine whether to rewrite, wrap, or retain a COBOL program are specific, answerable from static analysis, and usually ignored until year two of a migration that is already late.

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