In CICS®, when the programs being executed enter into a conversation with the user, it is called a conversational transaction. A non-conversational transaction, by contrast, processes one input, responds, and ends (disappears). It never pauses to read a second input from the terminal, so there is no real conversation.

There is a technique in CICS called pseudo-conversational processing, in which a series of non-conversational transactions gives the appearance (to the user) of a single conversational transaction. No transaction exists while the user waits for input; CICS takes care of reading the input when the user gets around to sending it. Figure 1 and Figure 2 show different types of conversation in an example of a record update in a banking account.

Figure 1. Example of a conversational transaction

In a conversational transaction, programs hold resources while waiting to receive data. In a pseudo-conversational model, no resources are held during these waits (Figure 2).

More information about these topics can be found in CICS Application Programming Guide.

Figure 2. Example of a pseudo-conversational transaction