RPG Development Services: Solving the Maintainer Knowledge Gap

Every AI-generated rule description needs a named human reviewer with domain knowledge, and the review has to happen while the people who remember are still reachable. The value of automation here is that it lets you spend scarce expert attention on verification rather than on transcription. 

Hiring AS400 RPG Programmers Versus Buying RPG Development Services 

Organizations can still hire AS400 RPG programmers. The market for an RPG AS400 programmer is smaller than it once was, but qualified developers are still available. 

What is much harder to find is someone who already understands a specific company's application. Any new developer will need time to learn the codebase and its business rules. Good documentation can shorten that learning curve. 

There are several ways to address the gap. An organization can hire an iSeries RPG programmer and accept the ramp-up period. It can bring in an external partner for additional capacity while keeping ownership of the business rules internally. Or it can use a hybrid model in which an internal employee retains domain knowledge while external developers handle development work. 

The hybrid approach can be particularly practical because it keeps the scarce knowledge inside the organization while using external capacity where it is easier to source. 

Whichever model a company chooses, documentation should be included as a deliverable in the statement of work. That requirement separates useful RPG development services from simply adding developers to a project. The difference is important. One approach adds capacity. The other can gradually create another dependency. 

Professional AS400/IBM i RPG development service providers can make rule extraction part of the development process rather than treating it as a separate documentation exercise. That makes sense because the best time to document a program is while someone is already working inside it. 

What to Do in the Next 90 Days 

If an experienced developer is likely to retire within the next two years, there is no need to begin with a massive transformation project. 

Start by creating a live inventory of the applications and programs that actually run. From there, identify the programs that would cause the most disruption if their knowledge were lost. Have the retiring developer review AI-generated documentation for those programs instead of asking them to create every document themselves.  

Then pair that experienced developer with the person who will take over the work. Give them a real application change to work on together rather than creating a separate training exercise.