James Barrett
COBOL Developer, Mainframe Services & Training
"Your geeky tech guy on the net"
COBOL Developer, Mainframe Services & Training
"Your geeky tech guy on the net"
Delivering robust enterprise mainframe solutions, batch optimization, and legacy system updates backed by decades of hands-on experience.
Developing, updating, and maintaining mission-critical enterprise COBOL applications. Deep experience in business logic, data file validation, structured routine design, and seamless system integrations.
Proficient in navigating z/OS environments using TSO/ISPF. Skilled at managing datasets, managing member libraries, executing utility functions, and organizing system workflows efficiently.
Authoring and maintaining Job Control Language (JCL) streams. Expert in batch job scheduling, dataset allocation, step execution overrides, catalog management, and JES2/3 output handling via SDSF.
Embedded SQL integration in COBOL programs accessing DB2 relational databases. Experience running queries, testing execution plans with SPUFI, and optimizing data retrieval for large-scale operations.
Design and maintenance of QSAM sequential files and VSAM dataset structures (KSDS, ESDS, RRDS). Experienced with IDCAMS utility commands for index definition, cataloging, and file verification.
Analyzing legacy codebases to improve performance, refactor outdated routines, and eliminate batch processing bottlenecks. Modernizing data processing while ensuring 100% precision.
Deep background working with mutual fund and retirement account processing engines (such as TA2000). Building robust solutions designed for stringent regulatory, reporting, and ledger accuracy requirements.
Bridging legacy mainframe data structures with modern web and client-server systems. Designing clear interface boundaries between COBOL backends and C#/.NET or SQL environments.
Active tracking and troubleshooting of batch production streams via SDSF. Identifying abends, analyzing execution logs, resolving condition code failures, and restoring normal batch runs.
Familiarity with CICS command-level programming for real-time transaction processing. Enhancing user-facing screen programs and maintaining transactional mainframe data flows.
Rapid diagnosis and correction of logical or runtime defects in complex mainframe suites. Parachuting into long-standing codebases to remediate issues with minimal operational risk.
Automating routine mainframe compilation, dataset staging, and file conversion tasks using automated scripts, Windows Batch, and custom utility tools.
Structuring standard COBOL copybooks for consistent record parsing across enterprise modules. Managing record definitions for file-based processing and database mapping.
Building reliable COBOL utilities to unload, reformat, and migrate legacy dataset contents into modern SQL environments or flat-file staging stores without loss of integrity.
Reviewing legacy mainframe systems to map out business rules, document dataset dependencies, and identify code paths for modern re-platforming initiatives.
Refactoring embedded SQL queries and COBOL host variable handling to reduce CPU overhead, cut mainframe MIPS usage, and shorten overnight execution windows.
Mentoring junior engineers and modern software developers on mainframe fundamentals, TSO/ISPF, JCL execution, and COBOL programming techniques to preserve institutional knowledge.
Available for short-term fixes, targeted upgrades, or full-cycle mainframe project consulting, delivering clear communication and battle-tested reliability from day one.