The first part of a COBOL (sub)program is its IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. This division contains information that helps to identify the (sub)program, such as program name (the only required piece of info), author, date written, etc.
It typically looks something like
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. Payroll-Processing.
AUTHOR. Joe Programmer.
DATE-WRITTEN. June 15, 1973.
**********************************************
* Program Abstract: blah blah blah
*
* Input: blah blah
*
* Output: blah blah
**********************************************
The only required paragraph is the one named PROGRAM-ID. In it, the programmer supplies a data-name (in this case, Payroll-Processing) that identifies the program. There are a number of other paragraphs (each having a pre-defined name) that may be included. Here we have shown paragraphs named AUTHOR and DATE-WRITTEN.
By convention, we also include several lines of comments (each of which is signaled by an asterisk in the first position) in which is given the Program Abstract and in which the Inputs and Outputs (and the intended relationship between the two) of the program are described.
For more about the IDENTIFICATION DIVISION, see pages 103-104 of Comprehensive COBOL.