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Name: Geoff Sharman
Job Role: Senior Consultant, Software Development
IBM start date: 30th September 1968
Length working on CICS: 6 years |
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| What do you have to do with CICS? |
| I started as a Technical Planner, at a time when the planning team was 70 people, and finished as the Strategy and Marketing Leader for CICS, with a team of 10-12 people. We got more done with the small team than the large one! |
| What were you doing around 8th July 1969? |
| I had been working in Hursley for 9 months, had completed Basic Programmer Training (3 months) and was working in my first job as Clear-Caster Technical Support. Clear-Caster was an early Visual Development Environment which used a combination of 2260 Display Station and 2741 Typewriter Terminal, before the 3270 Display Terminal was invented. [Later, we developed VTAM Release 1 using this development environment.] I was enjoying working for IBM which had enabled me to buy a house, but I hadn't yet had my first business trip or my first pay rise! |
| Fondest CICS related memory |
| My first impression of CICS was that I had joined a worldwide family, populated by luminary figures such as Bob Yelavich, which did important things and enjoyed wealth and influence as a result - which meant that I would be accepted anywhere. The family is smaller now, but the feeling is the same. I take huge satisfaction from seeing CICS keep pace with new directions such as the launch of the Web Services feature, enabling it to maintain its significance for customers. The achievement of 35 years as a leading software product (without changing its name!) is close to unique in the history of computing, and something to be very proud of. |
| “If CICS was to disappear tomorrow…..” |
| ... we'd just have to reinvent it (and there would be jobs for retirees)! |
| Name something else 35 years old that you still use. |
| My first Pentax SLR 35 mm camera, bought in 1964, which has worked faultlessly without ever being serviced. Though, admittedly, I do use my 1995 fully automatic Pentax a lot more! |
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