Why documenting a COBOL program can still take 12 hours in 2025 (and how AI reduces it to just minutes)
Shock introduction
The figure is staggering: over 220 billion lines of COBOL are still running in production in 2025.
Every day, they power banking transactions, insurance, pensions, and even certain public services.
The problem: documenting a single COBOL program can still take 6 to 12 hours.
And some banks pay up to $400/hour for experts capable of explaining what the code actually does.
In other words: a mine of critical knowledge… but one that costs a fortune to decode.
Why it takes so long
Documenting a COBOL program remains a headache for several reasons:
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A verbose but deceptive language: despite its “English-readable” syntax, COBOL hides complex variables, nested sections, and rigid procedural logic.
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No initial documentation: most programs have been running for 30 or 40 years without a clear manual. Everything has to be reconstructed by hand.
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Buried business logic: critical rules (banking calculations, taxation, pensions) are hard-coded into nested IF statements.
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Invisible dependencies: VSAM files, CICS calls, JCL jobs… each program is a ball of yarn unraveling across multiple systems.
Result: even COBOL experts take hours (sometimes days) to write reliable documentation.
The risk for banks and insurers
This slowness is not just a technical issue. It’s a major strategic risk:
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Mass retirements: every year, COBOL experts leave the market, taking with them decades of tacit knowledge.
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Rare and costly workforce: rates skyrocket (€800 to €1200/day) to recruit COBOL specialists able to intervene.
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Modernization projects delayed: due to lack of documentation, migrations to Java/.NET or cloud fail 90% of the time on the first attempt.
For banks and insurers, this is an operational sinkhole that slows down digital transformation.
The Bosqweb solution
This is precisely the challenge we decided to tackle.
Bosqweb offers a platform powered by artificial intelligence that:
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Reads and automatically summarizes COBOL: each program is broken down and explained in natural language.
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Produces clear technical + business documentation: variables, business rules, transactional flows.
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Generates visual maps and reports: dependencies between programs, JCL links, CICS integrations.
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Ensures functional fidelity thanks to automated test suites (unit, integration, regression, performance).
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Reduces transformation timelines by up to 80% by preparing a progressive, secure, and documented modernization.
In short: what used to take 12 manual hours can be reduced to a few minutes with Bosqweb.
Are you a bank, an insurance company, an IT services firm, or a government agency?
Do you want to secure your COBOL knowledge and accelerate your modernization projects?
👉 Test our Alpha demo for free.
Upload a COBOL program and instantly get clear, usable documentation.
