Various Roles of Mainframe people

System Programmer

• Planning Hardware & software system upgrades and changes in configuration

• Automating operations and capacity planning

• Running installation jobs and scripts

• Performing installation-specific customization tasks

• Integration-testing the new products with existing applications and user procedures

• System-wide performance tuning to meet required levels of service

• Training system operators and application programmers

System Administrator

• The person who monitors and controls the operation of the mainframe hardware and software

• Starts and stops the tasks and subsystems

• Performs IPL and hardware restart

• Works closely with system programmers and Production control analyst to ensure normal operation of the systems

Application Programmer

• Application programmer will design, build, test and deliver mainframe applications based on client/user requirements

• The process includes several iterations of code changes and compilation, application builds and unit testing

• The programmer is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the company's existing mainframe applications

• COBOL, PL/I, REXX, JAVA, C and CLIST are widely used languages

System Operator

• Adding, deleting users and maintaining user profiles

• Maintaining security resource access lists

• Managing storage devices and printers

• Managing networks and connectivity

• Monitoring system performance

• Defining & customizing subsystem resources

• Defining DB2, CICS & Websphere MQ resources

Production Support Analyst

• The person who ensures that batch workloads run to completion without error or delay

• Monitoring online regions like CICS, IMS, DB2

• Manage online and batch processing

• Scheduling jobs & packages

• Providing production support in resolving batch job failures

• Managing preventive maintenance schedules

• Following right escalation procedure

• Maintaining quality documents for reference