arried out by hand, a time-consuming and error-prone process."Systems must be well tested to ensure that functionality has not beenchanged in any program as a result of the date changes. This means aunit test of the program, a system test with a test bed of data coveringall functions, a simulation test to any date in the future that mayimpact your system (this involves moving your data and your system dateinto the future), and finally, a test with historical data to make sureyou can process old data through the system once changes are complete.Developing a test bed for these changes is a significant task. Thetesting stage represents 40% of the effort for the entire project."-- Brenda McKelvey, from a report on the "Year 2000: Blueprint forSuccess" conference in Orlando, Florida, November 1995; DatamationMagazine.Allocate Financial ResourcesNo doubt about it - this is one project that is going to be extremelyexpensive for some companies. Whether it is money spent on converting orre-engineering their computer systems, or money lost on downtime causedby millennium bugs, the projected figures are enormous. Where will youget the financial resources to make the conversions? If you have beenplanning all along, then you have already established a fund that can bedrawn off for consultation and implementation of the bug fixes. If not,you will have to look into where resources can be drawn from to fullyimplement these changes before downtime starts costing you money.If your company had software developed that suffers from your spec, wasinherent system failure written in the development contract for yoursystems, and if so, is legal action a possibility to recoup some of thecosts associated with re-engineering or repairing your computer network?Take ActionStart implementing your plan of action. The nature of the repairs andreplacements are extremely time critical, and planning with regularprogress meetings and code reviews should be undertaken to h...
