Reverse-Engineer a 22-Year-Old COBOL Batch Pipeline

FreeVerified credential4 weeksAdvanced

Overview

What this challenge is about.

Map 140 COBOL batch jobs, build a dependency graph, and write a strangler-fig plan for a banking system. Earn a verifiable certificate.

The scenario

The bank (regulated by BaFin under MaRisk + DORA) needs the documentation before a planned 5-year core-banking modernization — without it, no vendor can quote a defensible plan.

CredentialBlockchain-anchored

ShareableLinkedIn-ready

LanguageEnglish

PaceSelf-paced

The Brief

What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.

Reverse-engineer a 22-year-old COBOL batch pipeline into a dependency graph and critical-job documentation a modern team can hand off from.

Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate

Reverse-engineer a legacy batch pipeline using static analysis + interviews
Build a dependency graph that a modernization vendor can quote against
Run impact analysis prioritized by fan-out and regulatory criticality
Recommend a strangler-fig sequencing with risk + cost bands

Program Fit

Where this fits in your program.

Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.

Software Evolution and Maintenance

Master · Software Engineering

Strong alignment

This challenge maps to Software Evolution and Maintenance at the Master level. It sharpens the same practical skills your coursework expects — but in a real industry context with actual constraints and deliverables.

Skills

Skills you'll demonstrate.

Each one shows up on your verified credential.

Careers

Career paths this challenge builds toward

Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles:

Career paths this builds toward

Canonical roles

Systems Architect
Systems architects make the decisions whose consequences are felt for years. The role is about choosing: which cloud provider, which integration pattern, which trade-off between cost and reliability deserves an Architecture Decision Record so the next team understands the reasoning. You'll work in C4 diagrams, ArchiMate models, and the AWS or Azure Well-Architected Framework, but the real artifact is clarity of thought. Strong architects know when to standardize and when to let a team diverge, and they write documents that survive a leadership change. Students drawn here usually loved their distributed systems course and are patient enough to think before they build. Growth happens through scars: owning architectures end-to-end, watching them strain under real load, and learning which abstractions earned their place.
Platform & Infrastructure

One more thing

You can put a credential on your CV by Friday.

Start this challenge