Level 2: BCS MTP Senior Applications Developer
Below are details of the skills that must be demonstrated in
the examination in order to succeed at this level, and the prerequisite
education and/or experience expected.
Examination
The examination will be conducted over one day in invigilated test conditions. The disciplines and knowledge tested will comprise:
- COBOL programming language - advanced level skills
- Program testing - advanced level skills)
- Structured program design (optional)
- VSAM (optional)
- DB2 for z/OS programming (optional)
- CICS Transaction Server programming (optional)
Candidates must attempt at least ONE optional topic.
Skills demonstrated
In order to succeed at this stage and to qualify as a Level 2 MTP Senior Programmer, candidates will be expected to:
demonstrate an understanding of advanced COBOL usage by demonstrating knowledge of the following:
- PROCEDURE DIVISION
- WRITE statement (printing)
- DATA DIVISION
- Edited Data
- Alphanumeric Edited
- Numeric Edited
- Simple Insertion
- Special Insertion
- Fixed Insertion
- Floating Insertion
- Suppression and Replacement
- DECIMAL-POINT IS COMMA
- Program Control
- PERFORM with VARYING statement
- Table Handling
- Table Access (Subscripting and Indexing)
- Lookup Tables
- OCCURS clause
- Variable Length Tables
- Multi-Dimensional Tables
- SET Statement
- SEARCH statement
- PARM in JCL and its effect on COBOL
- Subprogram Linkage
- Subprograms
- Use of static and dynamic calls
- CALL statement
- CANCEL statement
- Coding a subprogram
- ENTRY statement
- GOBACK statement
- EXIT PROGRAM statement
- Data Manipulation
- INITIALIZE statement
- INSPECT statement
- STRING statement
- UNSTRING statement
- Reference Modification
- VSAM File Processing
- ESDS, KSDS and RRDS VSAM files
- OPEN statement
- START statement
- READ statement
- WRITE statement
- REWRITE statement
- DELETE statement
- CLOSE statement
- COPY statement
- RETURN-CODE and System Codes
- Intrinsic Functions
- Character-based intrinsic functions
- Arithmetic intrinsic functions
- Date/Time related intrinsic functions
demonstrate testing skills by:
- defining what is meant by quality and Quality Control
- defining the need for and the purpose of testing at different stages and levels within the Systems Development process
- describing conditions and condition dependencies using Decision Tables and other techniques as necessary
- creating a test plan for a program of medium complexity
- creating test data for part of a program test plan of reasonable complexity which includes:
- Checking all possible condition paths
- Checking Boundary Values
- Syntax Testing
- The use of well defined test data values which simplify the evaluation of test results.
(optional) demonstrate an understanding of structured programming by:
- creating designs for various modes of master file updating
- differentiating between different types of error data and creating designs for the related error handling
- determining whether an error is related to a Program Design Error.
(optional) demonstrate an ability to use VSAM by:
- analysing the structure of ESDS, KSDS, RRDS and LDS data sets
- using IDCAMS commands to create, monitor and manipulate VSAM datasets
- developing guidelines for optimised allocation of VSAM files
- diagnosing and solving VSAM problems.
(optional) demonstrate an ability to write CICS COBOL programs by:
- writing CICS programs
- using the required CICS programming facilities
- separating presentation from business and data logic
- using the commonly used CICS API options.
(optional) demonstrate an understanding of DB2 for z/OS by:
- describing the relational theory and concepts
- describing the objects used to store DB2 data
- explaining the use and purpose of Structured Query Language
- describing the functions available with DB2 Interactive (DB2I)
- embedding SQL statements within a host language program
- identifying and handling SQL errors within a host language program.
Prerequisite knowledge/experience
Candidates for the Level 2 BCS Mainframe Technology Professional (Senior Developer) certification will be expected to have at least three years of experience in a mainframe-based data centre and will have Level 1 MTP Developer certification, or have the equivalent experience.
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