As we speed towards the new millennium, Year 2000 (Y2k) experts are advising the owners of information technology systems to begin their testing phase sooner rather than later. This is of necessity, to ensure sufficient leeway for identifying problem areas before the clock marks the end of our present era.
Affecting all systems, from the modest single-PC Soho user to the gigantic mainframe-based corporate installations, the Y2k bug is the largest challenge the IT sector has ever had to face.
Statistics of total cost estimates and the number of systems now compliant, are very much a thumb-suck. Although the Y2k project completion dates are not negotiable, the final costs of fixing the Y2k problem will probably overrun the original multi-billion US dollar estimates, because non-critical systems will still have to be corrected in the post 2000 period.
The impact on small businesses maybe huge. Estimates suggest that in Europe as many as 10% of companies will be faced with closure. The correct allocation of scarce resources will be vital, as many will find themselves squeezed with costs up and revenues down, as suppliers, contractors and customers struggle to sort themselves out.
According to South Africa's 2000 Forum, the leader in fixing the problem is the US, where Government started working on the Y2k problem in 1991. Canada and Britain are reckoned to be not far behind, with continental Europe suffering from the added problem of having to prepare its systems for the advent of the Euro in 1999. South Africa is positioned as fifth in the world in bringing awareness of the Y2k problem to the forefront.
This has been achieved by the enlightened attitude of our government. The need to form an advisory body for all Year 2000 issues was perceived as a means to avert any potential disaster and consequent domino effect.
Towards the end of 1997, the Cabinet entrusted the task of managing the Year 2000 Computer Phenomenon to a Ministerial Committee, chaired by the Executive Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki. The Ministerial Committee was convened by the Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting, Jay Naidoo.
The National Year 2000 Decision Support Centre (NY2KDSC) was established as the Government`s mechanism to inform the general public, private sector, state-owned enterprises, financial institutions, SMME`s, etc. of the need to address potential disruption of services as a result of the Y2k phenomenon.
Mohamed Madhi. was appointed Chief Executive Officer, and has overseen the establishment of five subcommittees: Public Sector (Essau Mailula ), SMME and other (Tseietsie Mahelo), Communications (Reinhild Niebuhr), Financial Services and Tertiary Institutions (Jim Ramdin), and Information & Communication Technology and Control Industry (Wojtek Skowronski)
The prognosis for SA is not disastrous. Good progress has been made in sorting the problem out in various key areas, such as the banking system - where the big four banks are working together to ensure that the system holds up. The added weight of no-space-for-failure has been applied by the South African Reserve Bank monitoring all South African bank compliance projects, including an early-warning system for pinpointing problem areas. Word is that the Reserve Bank is confident that the local banking industry will make the deadline in good time.
SA Utilities, such as ESKOM, Telkom, SAPO and Transnet are all on target with their millennium projects and confident that, with the co-operation of the local authorities, Year 2000 should be a non-event on the IT front. The main expression of concern is that inter-state operations with the rest of Africa need more guidance from Y2k-aware nations such as South Africa to bring them into line with global Y2k requirements.
Yet, despite all the strides that have been made to combat the problem, the most crucial stage still has to be faced by a major percentage of corporate and state-owned enterprises.
Experts agree: The most critical sector of all Year 2000 projects is the testing phase - organisations will stand or fall, depending how thorough their testing has been.
"In an ideal world," says Bateleur Software's Sam Selmer-Olsen, "as each application is modified to make it Year 2000 compliant, it would be completely tested under YR2K conditions.
"Experiences so far with customers engaged in Y2k projects indicate that this is unrealistic for a number of reasons:
- Comprehensive test data does not exist for all Year 2000 affected applications;
- Even if comprehensive test data were available, there is no guarantee this will test all the affected and changed locations within the application; and
- There may not be enough time to generate new test data for old applications.
"This is why many companies are turning to GENTEST, a reliable and highly automated testing of NATURAL applications and ADABAS databases from Generation Systems."
Endorsed by SAG Corporate in Germany, GENTEST is a powerful and integrated workbench developed specifically to test NATURAL applications and ADABAS databases with a high degree of quality control.
Part of a comprehensive suite of re-engineering tools, it has been designed to remedy Year 2000 issues rapidly, reliably and at their root.
According to Selmer-Olsen, GENTEST offers comprehensive and highly automated data impact analysis, compare and documentation facilities, which can be used to trace and resolve date processing impacts on ADABAS data for the Year 2000.
He said users benefit most from its automatic test scripting, GUI test script management and test result comparison capabilities.
"GENTEST automatically captures and generates test scripts for re-use and modification. Its Windows environment allows scripts to be easily reviewed, changed and re-executed, and multiple executions of test script can be captured and re-captured, compared and differences identified and reported.
"GENTEST takes advantage of GENART`s ( the SAG-recommended re-engineering tool for ADABAS) application information to identify the objects, structures and processes behind the captured script screens, and uses Genada`s (for automating the ageing process - also part of the GENSET suite of tools) data information to determine the data requirements for execution of the test scripts.
"Further, although GENTEST was conceived with the urgent requirement of Year 2000 compliance in mind, the concept includes considerations for the use of the product beyond 2000.
"The opportunity to test any changes made to the application and its continued enhancement within the GENSET products makes GENTEST a valuable tool for the testing of applications generally and NATURAL applications specifically.
"It's the testing tool South Africa's been waiting for, and it will make the Y2k deadline more achievable."
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