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IBM is fully supportive of this independent certification scheme. We believe that BCS MTP is the way forward for the mainframe industry.
Barrie Heptonstall, Technical Director, IBM Systems Group.

Level 3: BCS MTP Consultant (Operations)

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:

  • Advanced JCL and Utilities - knowledge of theory and practical expertise
  • Writing REXX - knowledge of theory and practical expertise
  • VSAM - knowledge of theory and practical expertise
  • z/OS - advanced problem resolution - knowledge of theory and practical expertise.

Skills demonstrated

In order to qualify at this stage candidates will be expected to:

demonstrate an ability to use advanced JCL & z/OS Utility programs by:

  • coding jobs to run on systems other than the local host
  • coding JCL statements to create PDSE library and data files
  • coding JCL to create VSAM data sets without IDCAMS
  • using the OUTPUT, INCLUDE and SET statements
  • using the most common batch utilities
  • coding and execute nested procedures.
demonstrate an ability to write REXX programs by:
  • describing features of TSO REXX language
  • writing and debugging REXX programs executing in the TSO environment.
demonstrate the ability to use VSAM by:
  • analysing the structure of RRDS, 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.
demonstrate an ability to resolve operational and Job related problems (advanced) by:
  • diagnosing operational central system problems (hardware related)
  • diagnosing operational central system problems (software related)
  • analysing ABENDs (advanced).

Prerequisite knowledge/experience

Candidates for the Level 3 BCS Mainframe Technology Professional (Operations Analysis) certification will be expected to have at least three to five years of experience in a mainframe-based data centre and will have Level 2 BCS Mainframe Technology Professional (Operations Analysis) certification.