The Computer Time-Bomb: How to Keep the Century Date Change from Killing Your Organization (Ama Management Briefing)

178 Pages·1997·0.58 MB·English

by  Minda Zetlin

The Computer Time Bomb : How to Keep
title: the Century Date Change From Killing Your
Organization AMA Management Briefing
author: Zetlin, Minda.
publisher: AMACOM Books
isbn10 | asin: 0814423655
print isbn13: 9780814423653
ebook isbn13: 9780585019451
language: English
Year 2000 date conversion (Computer
subject
systems) , Software maintenance.
publication date: 1998
lcc: QA76.76.S64Z48 1998eb
ddc: 005.1/6
Year 2000 date conversion (Computer
subject: systems) , Software maintenance.
Page i
The Computer Time Bomb
How to Keep the Century Date
Change From Killing Your
Organization
Minda Zetlin
AMA Management Briefing
AMA MEMBERSHIP PUBLICATIONS DIVISION
AMERICAN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
Page ii
For information on how to order additional copies of this publication, see page
103.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zetlin, Minda.
The computer time bomb : how to keep the century date change from
killing your organization / by Minda Zetlin.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 0-8144-2365-5 (pbk.)
1. Year 2000 date conversion (Computer systems) 2. Software
maintenance. I. Title.
QA76.76.S64Z48 1997
005.1 '6-dc21 97-34031
CIP
© 1998 AMA Membership Publications Division.
American Management Association, New York.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This
Management Briefing has been distributed to all members enrolled in
the American Management Associiation. This publication may not be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in
part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of AMA Membership Publications Division, 1601
Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
Printing number
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Page iii
To
Bill,
for the next century
Page v
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
What Is the Year 2000 Problem? 1
Are You Ready for Y2K? A Self-Test 5
1. Management's Biggest Mistake 7
2. What Your IT Department May Be Afraid to Tell 12
You
3. The Big Picture 24
4. How Could They Let This Happen? 30
5. How Much Will It Cost? 34
6. Why Lawyers Love the Year 2000 46
7. The People Problem 55
8. Getting Outside Help 62
9. Your Year 2000 Team 69
10. Strategic Decisions: How Prudential Is 77
Handling Y2K
11. Partnering Y2K 81
12. Hidden Benefits of Y2K 86
How to Talk Techie: A Year 2000 Glossary 91
Want to Know More? Recommended Other 97
Reading
About the Author 101
Page vii
Acknowledgments
Many people who are in the trenches of the year 2000 battle, and thus
have very little time to spare, nevertheless spent a lot of it helping me
understand this complex and dangerous phenomenon. Here are a few
whose assistance went beyond the call of duty: Irene Dec at Prudential
Insurance, who patiently explained many aspects of her company's
model year 2000 project; Peter de Jager, consultant and co-author of
Managing 00, who has a talent for making this problem
understandable to nonprogrammers; the Gartner Group, without
whose ongoing efforts I never would have learned about Y2K when I
did; and research analyst Michael O'Connell, who has shared a store
of information. Also, thanks to Bill Ulrich and Ian Hayes, who put
together the Software Productivity Group Conference that turned out
to be a two-day year 2000 education. As Peter de Jager says: "Go to a
year 2000 conference. It will scare you."
And thanks to Martha Peak, former editor of Management Review, for
recognizing that the year 2000 is indeed a management issue, and for
helping to give this book its start.
Page 1
What Is the Year 2000 Problem?
The year 2000 problem (also called "Y2K") is the result of a universal
programming standard that records dates as six digits (mm/dd/yy)
rather than eight, using only two digits for the year. Software that uses
two-digit year fields (that is, almost all of it) will understand the year
2000 as "00" if the problem is not corrected in time.
Why Is It Such a Problem?
So some of your dates will look a little funny. What's the big deal?
The big deal is that computers use dates to perform a wide variety of
calculations. Inaccurate dates can make them either stop functioning
altogether or continue functioning, but inaccurately.
Of these two possibilities, the second is worse. Here are some mishaps
that have already happened because of the year 2000 problem.
Page 2
A major company had a simple method for eliminating outdated
customer Files: The computer would consider the last active year and
add Five. If the resulting number was smaller than the current year,
the file would be automatically deleted.
In 1994, this system worked perfectly. It calculated that 88 plus 5
equaled 93, and since 94 is greater than 93, any accounts that hadn't
been active since 1988 were terminated.
In 1995, things began to go awry. When the computer considered
accounts that were active in 1 995 and added 5, it got not 100 but 00.
Is 00 smaller than 95? Of course it is. So the computer deleted those
accounts.
By the end of the year, 800 active accounts had been canceled. In
1996, 1,200 more accounts vanished (because 01 is smaller than 96),
before the problem was finally caught.
A financial company sold thirty-year annuities to its investors.
Because of the thousands of documents and accounts involved,
contracts for these annuities were routinely generated by computer
and mailed out to customers without human review.
As the computer calculated maturity dates that crossed over from
1999 to 2000, it found a difference of 99 years between the year it saw
as "99" and the year it saw as "00." Although that was minus 99 years,
mary programs do not perceive a difference between negative and
positive numbers. Thus, the final values of the annuities were
calculated over 129 years instead of 30 years-a difference in value that
often reached into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Several thousand contracts were automatically sent out before anyone
caught the error. That company is now contacting investors,
requesting that they rip up the old contracts and sign newly corrected
ones instead. For those who refuse, the company will be legally