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❓ Workforce and Training Trivia

Jan 13, 2026

Trivia, Workforce Training

Workforce and Training Trivia

Sonja Soderlund

Sonja Soderlund is an Oregon-based B2B freelance writer. Whether writing about mainframe computers, educational technology, or sustainable retail, she strives to bring clarity to complex issues. Connect with her or LinkedIn.

Happy 2026—and welcome to a whole new year of Planet Mainframe Trivia! As our January theme focuses on Workforce and Training, this quiz looks at mainframe pioneers and the early decisions that shaped how mainframe skills are learned and passed on.

Mainframe expertise has never been accidental. The architects of System/360, early operating systems, programming languages, and virtualization focused on solving technical problems while also building professional structures. These structures included standards that made skills portable, tools that encouraged safe experimentation, and practices that supported apprenticeship and specialization. 

Take our quiz and see how much you know about the individuals and ideas that helped define what it means to build and sustain mainframe expertise.

1. Frederick P. Brooks Jr.’s concept of the “surgical team” was proposed to address which challenge in large enterprise software projects?

 
 
 
 

2. Grace Hopper’s advocacy for English-like programming syntax had what long-term impact on enterprise workforce development?

 
 
 
 

3. The term “mythical man-month,” often cited in discussions of large-scale systems development, comes from work by which mainframe-era figure?

 
 
 
 

4. Which pioneer is most closely associated with applying disciplined, structured methods to large-scale mainframe software development?

 
 
 
 

5. John Backus is best known in the mainframe world for leading the development of which language, originally designed for scientific computing?

 
 
 
 

6. Which pioneer was instrumental in advancing formal methods and program correctness, influencing how mission-critical mainframe software is designed and verified?

 
 
 
 

7. IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson Jr. is often associated with which strategic decision that shaped the future of enterprise computing?

 
 
 
 

8. Jean Sammet’s work is particularly relevant to workforce training because of her contributions in which area?

 
 
 
 

9. Which individual led the original design effort for PL/I, IBM’s language intended to unify scientific, commercial, and systems programming?

 
 
 
 

10. Amdahl’s Law remains a core teaching concept for performance tuning because it emphasizes what practical limitation?

 
 
 
 

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