Originally published on adammonago.com. The COBOL Problem names a knowledge pattern. The language is a metaphor. The store still runs. The interpreters leave.
Databases hold information. They do not pass it on.
The institution still has a working store. The people who could explain what the records mean are leaving, or already gone. What sits in the database is inventory: a list of what someone once knew, waiting for a person who is no longer in the room.
Two Stores, One Past
We had two official libraries for the same project history. Past-performance writeups: proof that the work had been done, for whom, with what outcome. Bid teams needed those records to be true. Briefers needed them to be findable. Both systems claimed to be the source of truth. They did not agree.
