39 karma · joined April 1, 2007
I have been a support analyst, programmer, software architect, and BA (and worked with several PMs). You really can't have one blanket generalization in this area because it completely depends on structure and job responsibilities.
While I think most companies that have COBOL systems want to get rid of them and move to a newer language, doing so is going to take a very long time. My company has wanted to move from COBOL to a higher language for over 5 years now and never been able to prove the business case. The language will be around, at least in maintenance if not development for at least another 20 years imho.
The big problem that companies are having is that the majority of COBOL programmers will retire in the next 5 years and new college grads don't have experience with it and don't want to learn it because it is considered "dead" by mainstream CS. That means those that actually know the language stand to make a very large amount of money in the coming years helping big banks convert their systems, when they have nowhere else to turn.
Just trying to get a good sample, I guess... I have no real idea of the hell on earth that I am walking into.