|
America's largest bank (400 million lines of code) has publicly criticized the telecommunications industry for its lack of progress. But Citicorp found out about its problem only in 1995. This is the pot and the kettle, if you ask me.
Nevertheless, Citicorp has a point: if the telcos don't all get compliant, as well as interoperable, then the banking system will crash. Problem: If the fractional reserve banking system crashes in a wave of bank runs in 1999, how will programmers be paid to fix the many noncompliant systems?
It's a chicken-and-egg problem. I'm chicken. I'm egging you on to take personal defensive action.
The story appeared in COMPUTERWEEKLY NEWS (Oct. 16).
* * * * * * * *
It [Citicorp] said suppliers had:
no common millennium compliance definition;
no consistent way of achieving compliance;
started late to achieve compliance;
provided nebulous, misleading and incorrect information;
not viewed date change fixes as a "maintenance patch", but instead embedded in new releases which were subject to development schedule delays and additional costs; and
been unaware of the date bug issues in bought-in components.
Citicorp identified a "laundry list" of 11 areas at risk, including voice, access networks, E-mail and Internet networks, and private circuit networks.
|