The biggest and meanest modernization trap involves the most important and usually most complex 5250 program in an application. In an ERP application this program handles Order Entry, in an Insurance application it is the Policy Master Update.

Every 5250 application has at least one of these big and mean 5250 programs.

It is attractive and logical to involve this type 5250 program in any modernization proof-of-concept exercise on the simple basis that "if RAMP can handle this program then it can handle anything".

As a result a lot of time may be spent understanding the peculiarities of this program and scripting for them. This is okay … unless handling it consumes excessive amounts of time and diverts all attentions away from the hundreds (or thousands) of other important 5250 programs that also need to be modernized. In this case it can become a trap.

• An ISV site should consider: Which program would be the very first one you would change to a new Visual LANSA component so as to best show off your modernized product to potential customers?

• An in-house development site should consider: Which program would the end-users gain the highest productivity and usability improvements from if it was changed to a new Visual LANSA component? What program, if it was replaced by something better, would garner the most management and end-user support for the modernization project?  

The answer in both cases is quite probably the biggest and meanest 5250 program.

Why not consider replacing it with something better?

If this is true, then the next question should be: "Why are we spending all this time and effort trying to reuse it, instead of just starting to replace it with something better?"

The reason is obviously to avoid the time and cost involved in replacing it.

However, if the commercial reality is that for various marketing, business and political reasons it will need to be replaced sooner rather than later, you should seriously consider doing it now, instead of spending an unreasonable amount of time trying to reuse it and allowing it to become the complete center of attention to the detriment of all the other 5250 programs that also need to be modernized.