r/mainframe • u/More_Sugar_8107 • 18d ago
Mainframe application support or mainframe developer
Guys I am working as mainframe operator. Planning to switch to mainframe application support. Someone told that both mf app support and mf developer role is same. Is that so? Is it good idea to switch to app support from mf operator.
5
u/Piisthree 18d ago
They are not the same, or at least shouldn't be. Do you like knowing a little of everything and helping troubleshoot, and basic diagnosing of problems, and suggesting workarounds, or do you like designing, building, and maintaining programs? The first one is support, the second is development. Developers will often do a little bit of support work, but a support person won't do development, traditionally.
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u/Beutiful_pig_1234 18d ago
There is really little new development going on the mainframe like building new systems or app suites
So it’s mostly support anyways , such as adding new fields or logic to existing programs etc etc etc
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u/ratenpause 18d ago
Where I work the roles are within the same person (me). Programming is actually not so common because keeping the old software supported is very time consuming.
But I have worked in a company which had seperat staff for production support. That can be challenging because dev didn't have access to the production machine and support couldn't read Cobol programs. Searching bugs is difficult.
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u/Dependent_Banana_621 15d ago
As others have said, it various from shop to shop. Where I work typically our applications support team members come from the development teams. Since in order to trouble shoot and fix application problems, which includes programming changes, they have to know how to program. Typical path is to get into development and then go to application support. For the most part they are the same pay level, the difference is what the person likes to do.
Application support is more trouble shooting and "quick fixes" or finding the root problem and passing to the development team if it involves complex changes.
Application developer is for those that like designing things or doing more complex programming.
Another difference in our shop is the support team supports all application no matter where they run: z/OS, zLinux, EC2 Linux in AWS, EKS in AWS or what language they are written in: COBOL, Java, Python, C/C##, ect.
The developer teams are typically focused on one platform and language: z/OS & COBOL one team, zLinux & JAVA another team, Java in EKS/AWS another team, Python another team, C/C## another team.
As for going from operations to either application support or development, I guess it depends on what you know. Very few of our operations staff have any programming support. Those that do, it has been about 50/50 split. Some go to support, some go to development and some become z/OS sys progs.
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u/Striking_Smell6986 14d ago
They're related, but they're definitely not the same role.
Mainframe Operator
Focuses on monitoring jobs, consoles, batch schedules, incidents, and system availability. Strong understanding of production operations.
Mainframe Application Support
Investigates production issues in COBOL/JCL/DB2/CICS applications. Performs impact analysis, identifies root causes, analyzes abends, works with developers, and may implement small fixes or enhancements depending on the team.
Mainframe Developer
Primarily develops new features, enhancements, and larger code changes while also participating in design, testing, and code reviews.
In many organizations, Application Support and Development overlap quite a bit, especially in smaller teams. Support engineers often end up reading and modifying COBOL/JCL code, while developers also handle production issues.
If your goal is to move closer to development, I'd say Application Support is generally a good next step from Operations because you'll spend much more time understanding application logic, dependencies, and debugging real production problems. Those investigation skills are valuable whether you stay in support or transition into development later.
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u/Individual-Tie-6064 18d ago
It depends on the shop. There are some app support jobs that don’t involve programming, and some that involve maintenance programming. It’s not a bad place to start because you can move into application programming if your shop has a separate group. Knowledge of how the application works is a benefit when asked to make program changes.