In CICS application design, how can you handle exceptional conditions raised by EXEC CICS commands so that your program responds gracefully to errors?

Introduction / Context:
CICS applications must be robust, because failures can impact many users and critical business transactions. When an EXEC CICS command encounters a problem, it raises an exceptional condition instead of silently failing. Developers need to handle these conditions explicitly so that programs can log errors, roll back work, or display friendly messages rather than abnormally terminating. This question focuses on mechanisms available in CICS to manage exceptional conditions.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• EXEC CICS file, terminal, and task control commands can raise named exceptional conditions such as NOTFND or DUPREC.
• CICS offers control commands to route these conditions to user written routines or to ignore them in some cases.
• COBOL programs can also receive response codes in fields such as RESP, RESP2, or EIBRESP.
• The goal is to continue processing or terminate gracefully rather than letting the task abend without control.

Concept / Approach:
CICS provides several approaches to error handling. HANDLE CONDITION associates specific exceptional conditions with procedure names inside the program, so that when a condition occurs, control jumps to the given routine. HANDLE ABEND allows you to trap abends and take recovery actions. IGNORE CONDITION tells CICS that a specific condition should be ignored, allowing the program to check RESP codes instead. Most EXEC CICS commands support a RESP and RESP2 option, which populate variables with numeric return codes that you can test after each call for detailed error information.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recognize that exceptional conditions are raised when a CICS command encounters a situation such as record not found or protection error. Step 2: Use EXEC CICS HANDLE CONDITION to associate those conditions with labeled error handling paragraphs. Step 3: Use HANDLE ABEND where you need broader abend recovery, and IGNORE CONDITION when you prefer to handle a condition through explicit RESP checking. Step 4: Include RESP and RESP2 parameters on critical CICS commands and test those values to make program level decisions.

Verification / Alternative check:
In CICS reference manuals, examples show HANDLE CONDITION statements at the start of a program that redirect conditions such as NOTFND to internal error routines. Sample code also demonstrates RESP and RESP2 usage after file control commands, and it explains that, without such handling, a condition can lead to a CICS abend such as ASRA or AEI9. This confirms that explicit handling constructs and response code checks are the correct way to manage exceptional conditions in CICS applications.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option B is wrong because allowing every exceptional condition to terminate the task reduces reliability and user friendliness. Option C incorrectly claims that JCL controls CICS error handling, which is not accurate since CICS runs online. Option D misuses COBOL ON SIZE ERROR, which does not trap CICS specific conditions. Option E suggests hiding errors instead of handling them, which does not solve the underlying problems and makes diagnosis difficult.

Common Pitfalls:
A frequent mistake is failing to code any HANDLE CONDITION statements and then being surprised by abends when a record is missing or a terminal error occurs. Another pitfall is overusing IGNORE CONDITION without checking RESP codes, causing logic to continue with invalid assumptions. Some developers also rely only on default abend handling without adequate logging, making production debugging harder. Following a consistent strategy that uses HANDLE CONDITION, HANDLE ABEND, and RESP checking leads to clearer, more reliable CICS programs.

Final Answer:
By coding EXEC CICS HANDLE CONDITION, HANDLE ABEND, or IGNORE CONDITION commands and by checking RESP and RESP2 or EIBRESP values after CICS calls to detect and handle errors explicitly