Marshall, I looked over some of your old posts and found one that I agree with:
"Is there a single programmer/EDP manager out there who can honestly tell me that they would turn over their systems to an automated conversion factory and then accept back the code and install it into production? Folks, I have been doing this a long time and I think that concept is absurd.
Finally, and I guess this one is for GU, which one of these magic bullets do you like. At this point,if someone has got one, it would eem like a cure for cancer - we would be hearing about it everywhere. I have not. Additionally, I can tell you after interviewing several times with IBM for Y2K work, they ain't got no silver bullets - they are doing it the old fashioned way - 1 pgm at a time. ( I know IBM is not the name it used to be but I still have to think that if there was a magic cure they would be on to it). And BWT, the companies they had sold their Y2K conversion services too- that I was interviewing for - were Fortune 100.
I guess this my real final comment, what makes anyone think that there are not enough COBOL programmers to fix the problem? We got tons of them at the baby bell where I work. The only problem is that they are busy doing other things. When push comes to shove, they will postpone other projects, hire as many contractors as possible and do it."
I agree that the conversion (or upgrade) work will be done mostly by bodyshops. No silver bullets. And it is not nearly as big or as tough a problem as people make out. We are not going to get paid 600 billion for fixing programs that cost about 10 billion to create. And I will get my phone bill in January of 2000 and you will get your power bill too. But don't be surprised if it is a couple of days late. |
