© 2014 IBM Corporation

What Skills Issue?From the perspective of a Generation z CICS Customer (ASZ-4236)Arshia BigdeliCICS Systems Engineerarshia.bigdeli@wellsfargo.com

Training Generation z is the key!

• “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” – Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Grouphttp://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/look-after-your-staff

• It is one thing to meet the immediate need by hiring a contractor to do a project or specific function for your company, but it does nothing to address the long-term need for an experienced CICS System Programmer.

• While there is a challenge in the market today to fill the shoes of the existing CICS workforce, there are individuals just waiting to get their feet wet!

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Attract, Train, & Retain

A long-term approach

• This will not be an overnight journey, and uncertainty of the future is part of the adventure. The promise of learning and a secure future will be the driver for growth.

• Think long-term for your entire CICS workforce, from the entry-level college graduate to the experienced professional that could debug your system with their eyes closed.

• Make a commitment to a new hire that what they hire into is the start of a career, not the end with only the current job description summary to look forward to.

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Attract, Train, & Retain

Start small, and build from there

• A “newbie” to CICS has much to learn, but can lean on those already in your environment.

• They should learn alongside other SysProgs; not as their replacement for next year, but as their replacement in 10 or 20 years.

• CICS maintenance, installation, upgrades, and tuning would be responsibilities as growth continues.

• All the while, continued exploration of the capabilities of CICS should be encouraged.

• Just as the human element does not stand still, neither does our beloved product

• As IBM continues CICS’s growth into new areas, an open mind should be kept to these technologies and how they can be leveraged in your organization– Gen z SysProgs are surrounded by the Web day-in and day-out,

and thus, can be a natural fit in leveraging web services, restful languages, and the mobile arena.

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The one constant is growth and change

• Focusing on certain aspects of CICS will go a long way to providing value to the organization and structuring the growth of the individual

• Year One, the basics of the Mainframe and CICS– RDO, Shadowing Support, performing prescribed tuning

• Year Two, support and maintenance– Application Support, Problem Determination, Change Installations

• Year Three, build/teardown and design– Building new CICS regions, moving applications between regions,

shutting regions down– Application design (directing in CICS technologies/capabilities)

• Year Five, install and architecture– Product install, tuning discovery, long-term architectural goals with

the environment

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Attract, Train, & Retain

Responsibilities will change. This is a positive!

• The biggest hurdle to face with “growing” a GenZ SysProg is HR.• Providing an avenue of growth for the employee and transitioning

them to greater responsibility over time requires HR cooperation

• The “newbie” that didn’t know the first thing about CICS three years ago should be able to do many things on their own today.

• He or she still may not be an expert in everything, but should be able to be a contributing member of the team.

• He or she must feel the company is invested in them as well and this can mean a change in title, responsibilities, pay, etc., even if remaining within the same team.

• By now, he or she may have a specific “arena” of CICS that they want to go into and/or an area they want to focus more on.

• One should be encouraged to spread their wings and most importantly, be allowed to fail on occasion!– We often learn much more through failure than we do through success!

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Never be afraid to ask “Why?” and learn new things

• The biggest benefit of “new blood” into CICS is to challenge our preconceptions.

• Many are here for good reason and will not change. However, that is no excuse for not evaluating them.

• Do not be afraid of change and don’t settle for “it’s always been done this way”!

• A CICS System Programmer with 30+ years of experience can/will/should learn something new just as one with only 5 years experience.

• We are a team & nobody will ever know everything. Use that to your advantage by working together & learning from each other.

• Accept that there will be times you do not know the answers. After all, that’s why there “Ask the Expert” sessions and Service Requests!

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In Summary

• Don’t be afraid to attract SysProgs that are “wet behind the ears”

• Train them to be productive members of your team and become experts on CICS

• Retain them for the long-term so you always have experienced talent supporting your environment and do not let them be afraid to “Why?”.

• “When joining Wells Fargo’s (then Wachovia’s) CICS Team almost 7 years ago, I had zero experience with CICS. But I understood technology, was eager to learn, and had a capable team surrounding and encouraging my learning.”

Arshia.Bigdeli@wellsfargo.com.com/in/arshiabigdeli

@arshiabigdeli

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