Lab Overview

In this lab you will explore four of the phases in the IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z workflow. The lab is performed on instructor-provided instances that you access through your web browser. You do not need any additional software on your personal laptop or workstation other than a modern web browser.

The phases you will explore are:

1. Understand
2. Refactor
3. Transform
4. Validate

Depending on your motivation for using IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z, not all of the above phases are required. If you just need to gain a better understanding of your existing COBOL application estate, but do not wish to refactor your application into more modular business services, you might only perform the Understand phase.

If you are interested in creating modular COBOL business services but do not have an interest in Java, you will first perform the Understand phase in order to identify parts of your application to create modular services from, and then you will perform the Refactor phase in order to create these services.

If you are interested in converting parts of your COBOL application to Java, then after the Understand and Refactor phases you will perform the Transform and Validate phases.

The lab works with a sample COBOL application and gives an idea of what is involved in each phase.

In order to navigate through the lab, click the link at the bottom right of this page to start the Understand phase. Follow the instructions on each page in order, and at the bottom of each page you'll see the link to the next page in the lab.

Click the Understand Phase link at the lower right to get started!