How to be a productive IBM i/AS400 Developer

 

IBM i or AS400 programmers are hard to find in this world where modern technology, languages and platforms are venturing everyday. New programmers are running to learn the latest technologies but they do not know what IBM i has in its treasure box. Big tech giants, enterprises, industries rely on IBM power systems even today because there is no such OS like IBM i that can handle mission critical tasks securely and professionally. RPG developers have a lot of scope in their career as these organizations are always on a hunt for productive IBM i/AS400 developers.

 

Here are a few things that IBM I programmers can keep in mind to enhance their productivity and value:

1.Learning new skills

Knowledge of RPG is the greatest strength and if it is added with new skills it can make your career shine bright. So, its time that the developers look into learning some new advancements, allow for improved productivity, agility and the development of high performance  applications. Most important of all is to pay attention to data centricity, learning all the capabilities of DB2 for i, and modular re-usable components.

2.RDi

Being a good RPG developer in the 21st century is not possible without working on modern tools and environment. RDi just provides you that. Learning the RDi usage to the core helps the IBM i programmers to code in the latest interesting environment instead of the boring green screens. While providing a modern ambience it maintains the traditional RPG, COBOL, C, C++, DDS, and SQL applications and extends those with services and applications using other technologies.

3.Data communication

 Data communication between IBM platforms is one big thing to learn today. XML integration is being used by developers to do so and its time that you also learn how to take data back and forth on the IBM platform. Learning about data communication in the latest style will increase your productivity and help you come out of the legacy IBM environment.

4.Show some business expertise

Developers know the technical aspect of all the business software so this means they indirectly know how the business works. To increase your contribution in helping your company meet their business goals, take out some time to understand what the business team does and what their pain points are. There are chances that your technical expertise may help them resolve their issues.

5.Work on good documentation

IBM i developers are not good at documentation and that is for real! If you do not want your work to go unnoticed and create problems for new ones, improve your documentation practice. This will require you to open a word doc and start illustrating that why did you use certain code, logic etc. this will help someone new to understand the project if you are not around or have left. For much better explanation make use of data flow diagrams.

Conclusion

Not only for RPGLE or RPG programmers, but for people of any occupation, to increase their own worth they need to be productive and keep learning new things everyday. Especially during this Pandemic when most of us are working from home, can utilize our free time in enhancing our knowledge. IBM i programmers can learn a lot of new technologies, integrations in AS400 development that can help in modernizing the legacy systems in much easier ways.

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