• identifies the program to the computer
• provides some documentation about the program

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. program-name.
[AUTHOR. [comment-entry] ... ]
[INSTALLATION. [comment-entry] ...]
[DATE-WRITTEN.  [comment-entry] ...]
[DATE-COMPILED.  [comment-entry] ...]
[SECURITY.  [comment-entry] ...]

When you run your COBOL program using RM/COBOL-85, your program-name appears as shown below:

 

 A:\> g:\rmcob\runcobol hello1 

 ST 12 HELLO1 C? e 

 HELLO, WORLD
 TODAY IS 00-01-01
 
 A:\>