Determining conversion priority
After you have determined the complexity rating for each program in your inventory, you can make informed decisions about the programs that you want to upgrade, and the order in which you want to upgrade them.
Table 1 shows one method of relating
program complexity ratings to conversion priorities. (The highest
priority is “1” and the lowest priority is “6”.)
| Conversion priority | Complexity rating | Other considerations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 to 3 | Great importance to your organization
Low conversion effort using conversion tools |
| 2 | 4 to 6 | Great importance to your organization
Medium conversion effort using conversion tools |
| 0 to 3 | Medium importance to your organization
Low conversion effort using conversion tools |
|
| 3 | 7 to 8 | Great importance to your organization
High conversion effort using conversion tools |
| 3 to 6 | Medium importance to your organization
Medium conversion effort using conversion tools |
|
| 0 to 3 | Small importance to your organization
Low conversion effort using conversion tools |
|
| 4 | 9 to 10 | Great importance to your organization
Very high conversion effort |
| 7 to 8 | Medium importance to your organization
High conversion effort using conversion tools |
|
| 3 to 6 | Small importance to your organization
Medium conversion effort using conversion tools |
|
| 5 | 9 to 10 | Medium importance to your organization
Very high conversion effort |
| 7 to 8 | Small importance to your organization
High conversion effort using conversion tools |
|
| 6 | 9 to 10 | Small importance to your organization
Very high conversion effort |
Consider the
following situations when deciding on conversion priorities:
- If your application is at the limits of the storage available below the 16-MB line, it is a prime candidate for conversion to Enterprise COBOL. With z/OS® architecture you can obtain virtual storage constraint relief.
After you determine the priority of each program that you need to upgrade and the effort required to upgrade those programs, you can decide the order in which you want to convert your applications and programs.
There might be some programs that you do not want to convert at
all, such as:
- Programs for which you have no source code, that will never need recompilation, and that run correctly under Language Environment®
- Programs of low importance to your organization that run correctly under Language Environment and that would take a very high conversion effort
- Programs that are being phased out of production
Note, however, that there might be restrictions on running existing modules mixed with upgraded programs. See Adding Enterprise COBOL 5 or 6 programs to existing COBOL applications.