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This report indicates that only two industries in the U.S. plan 1998 testing by all of their member organizations: securities and credit vcards. This is a nice plan. The question is: Can they do it? Will enough members complete the first stage of repairs on time? Second question: What if the tests prove negative, i.e., a breakdown in the repaired code takes place? Will there be time to fix the fixed code, test, and fix again? Almost everything I see on the Web on y2k testing assumes that one fix will do the job, that the tests will merely validate the original repair. This is a naive assumption.
The fact that only two industries see industry-wide testing as mandatory is a terrifying thought. What are all of the others thinking of?
Both industries operate worldwide. What if their foreign affiliates and partners don't make it? After all, 80% of the world's code is outside the U.S.
This report appeared in INFORMATIONWEEK (Oct. 6).
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The fact that the securities industry is focusing intently on street-wide testing should give some relief to traders around the world. The amount of money flowing through these organizations is staggering, and the effort being put forth is clearly warranted. But are other industries considering an industrywide year-2000 test? Our research uncovered just one other example -- in the credit-card industry.
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