Promise of Fully Automated Conversions May Yet Save the Procrastinators;
Mastech Engineer Develops a Robust Year 2000 Cobol Conversion Tool
PITTSBURGH, April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Have you ever gone shopping, eager to
buy, but found nothing you liked available? That's what happened to Mastech's
Director of Advanced Technology Satish Chandrasekaran, 30, when he went
looking for a Year 2000 Cobol conversion tool.
"Basically what happened was, we started getting requests from our
clients," Satish said. Many wanted to continue their relationship with Mastech
and wanted us to do their Year 2000 legacy conversions."
After testing many existing tools and talking to many technical support
staffs, Satish said it was apparent that nothing on the market was as fully
automated as Mastech engineers required. "It turned out that the reality and
the marketing hype didn't mesh. For most tools, you had to first decipher the
facts and then make many of the code changes manually."
Satish reasoned that renovating code was a language problem. After years
of working in projects that involved moving systems to new platforms, he
reasoned that his language processing skills would serve him well indeed.
Satish felt he was ready for the challenge. He asked Mastech to provide him
with a select group of other software engineers with language skills and he
determined to invent the missing link: a fully automated Year 2000 Tool. The
result is the Year 2000 SM/Cobol Tool.
"At first there were more scoffers than team members," Satish said with a
chuckle. Though well selected, he had only five team members for his project
-- although it was arguably one of the most ambitious IT undertakings of the
decade!
Besides, the skeptics pointed out, Satish was about three years behind the
curve. If he wanted to market a tool, it should already be packaged and ready
to go. As well, Mastech gave him a year to complete the work. The scoffers
said it could not be done, he said. Some consultants looked at the scope of
the project -- to invent the COBOL conversion tool -- the end date -- one year
away -- and the size of the team -- five. "They simply shook their heads,"
Satish said. "They believed the deadline was impossible and the team was too
small. They said I was just burning money."
In mulling over the problem, Satish said, he knew a solution could not
really be as far away as all that. "My immediate reaction was, 'Hey. You
look at the facts and during a conversion you are doing the same thing over
and over.' There was clearly a big need for automation."
When the Mastech team came together from the four corners of the U.S.,
Satish said they first hashed over all of the characteristics that comprise a
code variable. "We wanted to know how the human brain thinks," he said.
"That's what we put in our tool."
Using artificial intelligence techniques, Satish said the SmartAPPS Tool
could ferret out dates automatically. As a result, Mastech has achieved a
remarkable 98 percent success rate in code alterations.
One of the keys to the success, is in teaching the tool "fuzzy logic."
"Programmers are a very undisciplined and unruly bunch," he said. "You
have to design a system that can adapt to that reality." For example,
he said, the tool must recognize that a string of code "Harry's B-Day"
is a date. That -- and worse -- are real life examples of encoded
messages actually found in program codes.
Today, Satish said even the scoffers have changed their minds, now that
they have seen how effective the SmartAPPS Tool is. Satish said he has kept
abreast of the tools he explored initially and believes none of them have
increased their capacity in the interim.
However, Satish believes the tool will prove to be even more useful after
the Year 2000 alarm has come and gone. Satish is not alone in his opinion,
however. With the SmartAPPS Tool, our conversions to date have achieved a
proven accuracy rate of 98 percent. "It's proving to be a very capable tool
for software modernization and is invaluable in rehosting and convergence."
Satish quotes:
"Back in the good old days, when I was running around trying to get a
seat in college, my friends said the future is in computer science; take this
path. I took it and I am glad I did. I happened to have good counselors."
"When I'm at the office, I mess around with the computer. I usually take
mine apart about twice a day. I think I really annoy the MIS guys."
His spare time is completely devoted to a one-year-old baby, Roshan, and
his wife, Priya. He has lived for four years in the USA and resides in
Pittsburgh.
About Mastech
Founded in 1986, Mastech provides information technology services to
large organizations around the world. These services include Year 2000
services, ERP package implementation, Internet solutions, client-server
application development, conversions, migrations, and maintenance outsourcing.
Mastech provides services on a time, materials, fixed price basis, and offers
offsite/offshore delivery options. In addition to its offices in the U.S.,
the company has operations in Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan,
Australia, the Netherlands, and India. For more information on Mastech, visit
mastech.com.
Statements made in this press release, other than those concerning
historical information, should be considered forward-looking and subject to
various risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results may differ
materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements as
a result of certain factors set forth under Risk Factors and elsewhere in the
Company's Prospectus dated November 25, 1997.
SOURCE Mastech Systems Corporation |
