U.S. Federal Government - Y2K status update
InformationWeek, 10/7/96, "Government Agencies Muddle Along Toward 2000" (selected paragraphs)
A survey conducted in April by a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee
found, in part, that only six agencies have estimated how much money they need
to solve the year 2000 problem. Among the other findings: The Department of
Defense hasn't completed inventorying its roughly 358 million lines of code,
which means its bill for fixing the problem could run as high as $3 billion.
NASA expects to complete a plan to deal with year 2000 in March 1997. And the
Department of Energy began addressing the issue a week afterreceiving the
questionnaire, the survey found. The Department of Transportation didn't respond
to the survey at all, says subcommittee chairman Stephen Horn.
Even the Social Security Administration, which is the farthest along with
year 2000 compliance among federal agencies, hasn't completed its assessment
yet. Although SSA has 30 million lines of code, Judy Draper, directorfor the
year 2000 project, figures it will finish its conversion on time. For one, SSA
uses a life-cycle methodology, so its IS staff has a good idea of what's in the
system and how old it is. For another, SSA databases have already been made year
2000-compliant, Draper says.
Philip |
