Year 2000 Implementation

Year 2000 Impementation

Organization Year 2000 Program Phase or Activity Questions: Awareness Assessment Renovation Validation Implementation Program Management

Organizations Year 2000 Program Phase or Activity -- Processes:

Awareness -- Assessment -- Renovation -- Validation -- Implementation -- Program Management

5.0 Implementation

Implementation of Year 2000 compliant systems and their components requires extensive
integration and acceptance testing to ensure that all converted or replaced system components
perform adequately in a heterogeneous operating environment. Because of the scope and complexity of the Year 2000 conversion changes, integration, acceptance, and implementation will
likely be a lengthy and costly process.

Once converted or replaced and subsequently tested, Year 2000 compliant applications and system
components must be implemented. Since not all system components will be converted or replaced
simultaneously, agencies may be expected to operate in a heterogeneous computing environment
comprised of a mix of Year 2000 compliant and non-compliant applications and system
components. The reintegration of the Year 2000 compliant applications and components into the
agency’s production environment must be carefully coordinated to account for system
interdependencies. Parallel processing--where the old and the converted systems are run
concurrently--may be needed to reduce risk.

Key Processes
5.1. Define transition environment and procedures
5.2. Develop implementation schedule
5.3. Resolve data exchange issues and interagency concerns
5.4. Deal with database and archive conversion
5.5. Complete acceptance testing
5.6. Implement contingency plans
5.7. Update or develop disaster recover plans
5.8. Implement converted and replaced systems

5.1. Define transition environment and procedures

The transition from the current environment to Year 2000 compliant systems will be difficult
and complex. First, some key components of the agency systems--Year 2000 compliant
databases, operating systems, utilities, and other COTS products--may not be available
until late 1998 or early 1999. Second, external data suppliers may not plan to complete
their conversion and testing until 1999. Third, the testing, validation, and correction
processes may take much of 1999. Fourth, replacement systems may not be ready for
testing until late 1999. As a result, agencies may be forced to operate--at least for a time--
parallel systems and databases.

5.2. Develop implementation schedule

The Year 2000 implementation schedule must not only deal with uncertainties common to
all large system development efforts, but also should indicate all major milestones and the
critical path for the completion of the Year 2000 program.

5.3. Resolve data exchange issues and interagency concerns, including ensuring that

all outside data exchange entities are notified
data bridges and filters are ready to handle non-conforming data
contingency plans and procedures are in place if data are not received from an external source
contingency plans and procedures are in place if invalid data are received from an external source
the validation process is in place for incoming external data

All data issues and interagency concerns should be resolved prior to acceptance testing and
implementation. Bridges and filters should be in place to handle non-conforming data
received from external sources, and contingency plans and procedures should be in place to
handle no data or bad data situations.

5.4. Deal with database and archive conversion

Because the conversion of large databases from 2-digit to 4-digit year fields is a time
consuming effort, agencies may consider off-site conversion alternatives.

5.5. Complete acceptance testing

In general, formal testing uncovers about 80-90 percent of software errors, with the
remaining 10-20 percent of errors discovered during operations. Acceptance testing should
be completed no later than Fall of 1999, to allow sufficient time for the correction of
software errors discovered following implementation.

5.6. Implement contingency plans as necessary

Implement contingency plans to ensure support for business functions and processes that
may be interrupted by the failure to achieve Year 2000 compliance of a specific mission-critical
system.

5.7. Update or develop disaster recovery plans

All Year 2000 compliant systems--including the converted and replaced systems and related
databases--should have disaster recovery plans for the restoration of operations and data
in case of extended outage, sabotage, or natural disaster.

5.8. Implement converted and replaced systems

Reintegrate the converted and replaced systems and related databases into the production
environment.

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Formatted and altered from text provided by: The United States General Accounting Office Accounting and Information Management Division HTML format Copyrighted by The Disaster Center 1998