Across industries, organizations are facing a transformation that receives far less attention than cloud migration or AI adoption, yet may prove just as consequential: the retirement of the experts who built and maintained their most critical business systems.

For decades, core enterprise applications have been supported by highly experienced developers and architects whose knowledge extends far beyond programming languages or technical documentation. They understand how systems behave under pressure, why certain business rules exist, and how decades of operational decisions shaped today’s application landscape. In many organizations, that knowledge exists primarily in the minds of a small number of individuals now approaching retirement.

The systems they support, however, are not disappearing. Adabas & Natural applications continue to power essential operations across banking, insurance, government, manufacturing, and other industries. These platforms process millions of transactions every day while supporting business processes that evolve continuously alongside changing customer expectations and regulatory demands.

For organizations planning for the future, the challenge is no longer simply maintaining legacy systems. It is ensuring that the business knowledge embedded within those systems can be understood, supported, and extended by a new generation of developers—without introducing operational risk or overwhelming already stretched IT teams.

The Growing Risk of Knowledge Concentration

Many organizations eventually recognize the same pattern: critical expertise has become concentrated among a handful of long-serving employees.

These individuals often possess years of accumulated operational understanding that never made its way into formal documentation. They know which integrations are sensitive, which workflows contain hidden dependencies, and which business processes evolved through years of practical adaptation. Their expertise comes from experience rather than manuals.

At the same time, organizations are being asked to do more with fewer resources. Workloads continue to increase while internal IT teams remain under pressure to maintain daily operations, support modernization efforts, and respond quickly to business demands. As a result, there is rarely enough time available for structured mentoring, training, or knowledge transfer.

When this imbalance persists, organizations begin experiencing cascading operational risks. Development projects slow because fewer people understand application dependencies. Enhancements become harder to implement safely. Teams grow increasingly cautious around critical systems because confidence diminishes when only one or two people fully understand how applications behave.

Over time, even routine maintenance can become difficult.

Why Traditional Hiring Alone Isn’t Enough

Most organizations respond to generational change by trying to expand staffing before senior experts depart. Companies hire junior developers, increase contractor support, and invest in mainframe or Natural training programs for existing employees.

These efforts are necessary, but they rarely solve the entire problem.

Internal teams often lack the bandwidth required to mentor new hires while simultaneously managing production workloads. Recruiting experienced mainframe professionals has become increasingly difficult and expensive in a highly competitive talent market. Meanwhile, relying too heavily on individual experts creates dangerous single points of failure that only intensify over time.

Organizations that navigate generational change successfully approach it differently. Rather than treating it as a staffing challenge alone, they view it as a long-term capability and resilience initiative.

The most effective strategies combine people, processes, and technology to distribute knowledge more broadly across teams while building confidence systematically.

Strategies That Help Organizations Succeed

Organizations managing generational transition effectively tend to share several common practices.

Combining Internal and External Expertise

Many companies are supplementing internal teams with external specialists while simultaneously developing in-house capabilities. This approach allows organizations to maintain operational stability while accelerating knowledge transfer.

One Nordic financial services organization paired junior developers with retired experts serving as mentors. Structured training programs helped newer employees absorb both technical and operational knowledge more efficiently while reducing pressure on internal staff.

Replacing Informal Handoffs with Structured Programs

Ad-hoc onboarding processes rarely provide enough consistency for complex enterprise systems. Organizations increasingly rely on formal mentorship programs, rotational learning paths, and try-and-hire models that allow new developers to become familiar with systems before assuming full responsibility.

A Swiss manufacturing company used this approach to attract technology talent despite operating in a remote location. By integrating consultants into long-term mentoring programs, the company successfully transitioned several external specialists into permanent team members.

Modernizing Development Environments

Development tooling also plays a major role in reducing barriers for newer developers.

Modern environments such as NaturalONE and the upcoming Natural for Visual Studio Code help bridge the gap between traditional enterprise systems and contemporary development practices. Familiar interfaces, integrated workflows, and improved collaboration capabilities make it easier for developers to become productive quickly.

A U.S.-based manufacturer improved operational stability after adopting these modernized development tools, enabling experienced developers and newer hires to collaborate more effectively across teams.

Investing in Continuous Learning

Organizations are also expanding training beyond traditional classroom approaches. Virtual learning, hands-on mentoring, guided onboarding, and AI-assisted development tools are helping teams accelerate skill development while preserving operational continuity.

For example, a European insurance company maintained productivity during a platform rehosting initiative by combining structured technical support with long-term training and mentoring programs.

Capturing Institutional Knowledge

Perhaps most importantly, organizations are focusing on reducing reliance on undocumented tribal knowledge. Standardizing processes, documenting workflows, and embedding business logic into development practices all help ensure critical expertise remains accessible after experienced employees retire.

This shift transforms knowledge from an individual asset into an organizational capability.

How Modern Tools Are Changing the Transition Process

Technology is becoming an increasingly important part of managing generational change successfully.

Software AG’s modernization approach combines consulting, training, and development tooling to help organizations preserve knowledge while modernizing operational practices.

NaturalONE, the company’s Eclipse-based development environment, already provides capabilities that improve productivity and collaboration for Natural developers. Natural for Visual Studio Code, scheduled for release in 2026, is designed to make Natural development more familiar and accessible for developers entering enterprise IT environments today.

At the same time, Natural AI Code Assist is expected to further accelerate onboarding and learning by helping developers understand unfamiliar codebases, generate documentation, and reduce the time required to become productive within complex applications.

Together, these tools support a broader modernization strategy focused not only on technology, but also on long-term workforce sustainability.

Turning Generational Change Into an Opportunity

Generational transition does not have to threaten operational stability. In many cases, it can become an opportunity to modernize development practices, improve resilience, and distribute knowledge more effectively across teams.

Organizations that act early are often able to reduce operational risk significantly while making core applications more approachable for the next generation of developers.

The alternative is far riskier. Every retirement without a knowledge transfer plan increases the likelihood that critical operational insight disappears permanently.

As workloads continue growing and experienced experts leave the workforce, organizations must find sustainable ways to bridge past and future. Those that combine modern tooling, structured learning, and proactive succession planning will be best positioned to preserve the value embedded within their applications for years to come.