Governments in the U.S. Are Way Behind, Summit Meeting Reveals
Link: state.pa.us
A summit meeting was held in late October in Pennsylvania. Here is how the
publshed summary described the meeting:
"Each Executive Session was comprised of a group of people representing
both states and federal agencies, who worked on the technical and other
details for each policy framework. The Summit drew 107 government officials,
many of whom were chief information officers. Seventy of the participants
represented 42 different states and US territories, while 37 attendees
represented 21 federal agencies. In addition, a representative from Canada's
Year 2000 task force participated. The sessions were closed to the public."
This means that not all states were represented. Also, there are more than 21
Federal agencies that need help with this problem.
The results of their survey are frightening. Notice how few agencies are at the
implementation stage, let alone testing. Notice also how little of the budget is
devoted to the problem: about 20%. This same figure appears in private
industry. Remember this application of Pareto's law: "80% of your problems will
come from 20% of your operations."
Finally, look at how little communication there is with those outside agencies
that the repairing agency interacts with: about 20%. Almost everything is
devoted to in-house applications. But the problems of imported data and
coordination are the big ones.
This is a systemic problem. * * * * * * *
RESULTS OF THE Y2K EFFORTS STATUS SURVEY
Question #1: "With respect to your overall year 2000 effort, how far towards
completion is your state or agency?"
The mean response was 31.6%, with a range from 2% to 75%. (Exhibit 1 shows
the complete distribution of values.)
Question #2: "With respect to the year 2000 problem, which of the following
stages have the majority of your agencies or departments begun?"
The mean responses were:
Information gathering: 24%
Problem definition: 24%
Planning: 24%
Analysis: 23%
Implementation: 10%
Evaluation/testing: 9%.
Question #3: "With respect to the year 2000 problem, which of the following
stages have the majority of your agencies or departments completed?"
The mean responses were:
Information gathering: 23%
Problem definition: 21%
Planning: 17%
Analysis: 10%
Implementation: 1%
Evaluation/testing: 0%.
Question #4: "How many dollars do you anticipate your agency will allocate in
total toward the year 2000 effort (in million of dollars)?"
The mean response was $169.1M, with a range from $1M to $3,000M. (Exhibit 2
shows the complete distribution of values.)
Question #5: "What percentage of your total IS budget this year is being
allocated toward the year 2000 problem?"
The mean response was 18.3%, with a range from 0% to 22.9%. (Exhibit 3
shows the complete distribution of values.)
Question #6: "How much of your year 2000 problem a) is internal to your state
or agency?, or b) relates to exchanging information with other entities
(external)?"
The mean responses were:
Internal: 79.3%
External: 20.7%.
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