Last month, I flew to Rochester, Minnesota, for an interesting meeting with the designers of AS/400 education. Our discussions centered on IBM’s fledgling certification processes (for more info, click on http://www.ibm.com/Education/certify). IBM believes there is a real need to move our community of professionals toward rigorous certification. But why? Isn’t the AS/400 renowned for its “ease of use”? Is there really a need to accredit those of us who use it? After all, I’ve spent most of my adult life making a living on IBM equipment, and I have yet to become certified. What is the value of such certification? Does it make me a better programmer? Does it make my systems run any more smoothly? In this critical time of legacy reengineering—a time when all of us are trying to revamp our applications to survive Y2K meltdown—why should we “waste” our company’s precious time and money to gain accreditation from IBM?
Such were my thoughts as I was being escorted through the IBM manufacturing facility. I was rounding a corner into the assembly area when I came upon a poignant display. A section of the plant floor had been partitioned off to display specimens of equipment that this facility had once manufactured. For me, it was like tripping across a threshold into a time warp. There was a pastel blue System/3 Model 15 with its 96-column card sorter and its integrated printer taking up a space the size of a small office cubicle. Beside it hunched the low-slung white body of the System/32. Next to this was the upright, elongated hulk of a System/34. There was also a System/36 5360, looking like a washer- dryer combination waiting for the next load of clothes. And an early System/38. And then there was an early B model of the AS/400.
“Man,” I thought. “How many hours did I spend on those old machines?” Hundreds of hours! No, it was thousands of hours. In fact, it was probably even tens of thousands hours: hours spent keying code and reading manuals. I learned by trial and error and RTFM, constantly reciting the mantra “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
At the far end of the display crouched a couple of new AS/400 RISC machines in their menacing black attire. The shape and size of the boxes has changed so much that—next to the older equipment—the RISC boxes appeared to be spawned from an entirely different breed of computer. In fact, had I not known them to be AS/400s—descended from that long line of white S/3X machines—I would have been hard-pressed to identify any resemblance at all. “Man,” I thought. “So much has changed!” Behind me, the sound of the factory floor seemed to echo my thought. “Change! Change! Change!” the conveyor whispered as new chassises slipped toward assembly. “Maybe that’s what’s bothering me,” I said to myself. “Change!” Each of the S/3X boxes had inherited the best traits of its predecessor. Those machines taught me, step by step. But these new AS/400 RISC boxes are evolving too dramatically to calibrate by model numbers alone. New features and functions come at an ever-faster rate, every one a testing ground of new business functionality. Each new release of OS/400 is a quantum jump in technology. Those old, white AS/400s didn’t beget these new black models; the white boxes are merely milestones left behind. Then it hit me! “I’m stuck!” I thought. “I can no longer learn everything about the AS/400 by staying up all night reading the manuals. Too much has changed! More is in the works.” And it occurred to me that, for this reason alone, certification might offer the path to knowledge. It can—at the very least—tell me what IBM thinks I need to know.
In the coming months, IBM will be pushing its Business Partners to obtain official IBM AS/400 certification, a rigorous process that requires AS/400 professionals to pass tests to measure their competency. This extra step adds value to the IBM product line, ensuring that the people who sell and consult on IBM’s products really have the skills to handle the new technology. It should also increase the likelihood that the new AS/400 solutions delivered by IBM and its Business Partners will be the right solutions.
Here at Midrange Computing, IBM certification has also begun. It has become the goal of this magazine to bring the best AS/400 voices to you, our valued readers. What better way to do that than to practice what we preach? I know that some professionals in this business will tell me that certification is a joke. They say that they don’t need it and that their customers don’t want it. But every time I hear them grouse, I just recollect that line of machines gathering dust on IBM’s plant floor. I’m thinking, “I’ve mastered the white ones; now for the black ones.”
For me, it’s as simple as black and white.
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