Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

IBM i Brief: Merlin Subscriptions are on the Rise. Don’t Miss: The Fall 2023 IBM i Event Calendar.
Career: The pace of change is the slowest it will ever be. Training the Future RPG Developer.
Modernization: The IBM i and Gall’s Law.

IBM i Brief

Merlin Subscriptions are on the Rise

Hundreds of IBM i shops have adopted Merlin since it was released last year, according to IBM and ARCAD, which jointly developed the development and code management tool. The addition of a subscription offering in early 2023 significantly bolstered sales activity.

Don’t Miss: The Fall 2023 IBM i Event Calendar

There is a lot going on this fall for the IBM i community.

“IBM i professionals from packing their bags and gearing up for a busy fall conference season.”

Where are they headed?

IBMTechXchange: A major conference that offers hundreds of sessions for developers, data scientists, IT architects, operations professionals, and infrastructure architects, among other personas.
System i Developer Workshops: Database Modernization and RDi Quick Start for PDM Fans.
Digital Stratosphere 2023: This event hosted by Third Stage Consulting focuses on ERP implementations and digital transformation.
COMMON NAViGATE 2023: Currently slated to feature more than 100 sessions on a range of IBM i topics, as well as a vendor expo for IBM i and Power solution providers to display their wares. See you there.

Career

The pace of change is the slowest it will ever be

Enterprise technologies are changing at a rapid pace. At the center of this change is the convergence of AI and Data.

When business users have the ability to interrogate and interact with data and apply it against their specialized area of expertise, data insights can be produced much more effectively.

If the pace of technology is accelerating, how does this impact the career of an IBM i professional? How does it impact modernization?

What stands out to me is that if technology continues to accelerate, it is safe to say that real skill is not necessarily knowing X or Y, but the ability to pick up, learn, and integrate X or Y into your organization’s existing technology stack.

As this article points out, AI and Data will play a key role in helping professionals learn faster than they have before.

Have a growth mindset.

The RPG developer of yesteryear will be very different from the IBM i Developer of the future. The real skill will be how fast you can pick up on new technologies and how they make sense for the business.

Training the Future RPG Developer

There is a:

Skills gap. The difference between the skills employers need and what is available in the market.
Skills miss-match. The skills an individual has compared to what companies are looking for. This is a result of the adoption of new technology that changes how work is done which leads to the need for training or re-skilling.
Training gap. Lack of training resources, time, or a framework necessary to bring developers up to speed on new technology.

What’s the solution?

Modernization

The IBM i and Gall’s Law

Gall’s Law is a software development principle that states:

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working, simple system.”

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