Lessons Learned From Army, Navy, Air Force Y2K Projects

Lessons Learned from Army, Navy, Air Force Y2K Projects

Army Lessons Learned - Mr. William Dates, Project Manager, Army Y2K Office

Experience:
- 98% of Army mission critical systems are certified Y2K compliant - 93.5% have completed fielding. All mission critical systems scheduled to be completed prior to the end of October 1999.
- Significant progress made - optimism high (disruptions will be local and of short duration).
- No Y2K problems with weapons systems to date.
- One Y2K failure of a tactical system (TYC-39A tactical switch). Software fix implemented in May 1999.
- One leap year problem (GCCS-A D1) fixed and successfully retested.
- Some problems with locally-procured COTS equipment.
- Y2K failures that have occurred are minor and were quickly resolved.
- Non-Y2K failures, e.g., power outages, are more prevalent that Y2K errors.
- Y2K testing is a major risk reducer of Y2K failures on January 1, 2000
Recommendations:
- Still work to be done on late systems, operational evaluations, and exercising contingency plans
- Need to test all PCs and servers even if recently purchased on a contract with a Y2K warranty clause.Example: Servers on critical intelligence network in 10th Mountain Division found to be non-compliant despite vendor guarantee. Fix made onsite, Feb 1999
- Dry runs are essential prior to actual testing to assure completeness and accuracy of evaluations.
- Results from Army Op Evals are disseminated to Army units and commands.
Other Lessons Learned:
- Foreign Military Sales - Need to track retired/replaced items.
- Auditor Involvement - Early formal involvement and make an integral part of the overall management strategy.
- Databases On-line. - Need well understood definitions for key data elements.
- Information Distribution - Y2K Listserver and General Officer E-mail distribution.
- Y2K Opportunities - Early retirement/replacement of marginal systems.
- Getting a handle on inventory. - Using Y2K Supplemental resources to increase software engineering capabilities

Army Systems - Category	Total	Fixed	In Progress

Mission Critical	413	370	43
Other Major Systems	758	679	79
Non Major Systems	23,567	22,341	1,226
Personal Computers, Comm, Facility Systems	594,184	558,378	35,806
Total IT Devices	618,922	581,768	37,154

618,922 Total Information Systems and Information Technology (IT) Controlled Devices
Unknown number (probably millions) of embedded chips with IT in weapons systems

Navy Lessons Learned - Mr. Dave Wennergren, Y2K Program Executive, DoN

It's all about information superiority
- Total Asset Visibility
- Critical Infrastructure Protection
- Information Assurance
Information Sharing is critical: Enterprise-wide database - …every Sailor, Marine, Civilian, and their families will be “Y2K aware” and “Y2K ready”.
203 Major Installations - Approximately 932,000 Devices
Priority: Mission Essential Services (Power, Potable Water, Waste Water, Safety, Security)
Use existing structures whenever possible
Issues:
- Interfaces with local community
- Overseas host nation support
- Contingency plans/work-arounds in lieu of some fixes
- Manual setting of automatic controls

USAF Lessons Learned - COL Mike Marro, Deputy Director, Air Force Y2K Office

Focus on the Process, not on the Systems (Critical Information Flows and Decisions)
Leadership - Y2K as an additional duty - Many organizations placed Y2K low on priority list--assigned low-ranking POC
- Must get senior leaders (responsible for mission) involved early
IV&V contractors brought new ideas - Teamed with AF--not adversarial role, Found new opportunities for process improvement
- Great benefits from independent look…should have had tools 3 years ago
Configuration Management
- Must ensure systems tested/certified don’t develop Y2K problems from subsequent changes
- Some changes necessary for mission, safety, legal, etc reasons
- Standard approach needed early in process or allow Services to handle internally
- Must control configuration…the system you end up with must be the one you tested/fixed
Central database for DoD needed to keep an enterprise view of Y2K, Information collected has tremendous value, but costly to obtain and maintain
- Cost must be justified
- Data collection must be standard…can’t piecemeal together database
Air Force Audit Agency - Non-traditional approach--Management Advisory Service,
- Tailored outbrief to local commanders provides real-time data to help fix problems
- Audits boosted Y2K visibility, Got senior leadership involved
- Get Auditors involved early. Use them to help people fix problems…not report them
Funding Issues
- “No additional funding needed for Y2K” - attitude a problem
- Contractor support critical for testing - Experience not available in units
- Long delay in funding causes problems - End of FY fast approaching and some funds still not disbursed
- Competing requirements for dollars pushed Y2K down priority list…you get what you pay for!
Review
- Start early
- Get senior leadership involved
- Focus on the process/mission

Total Lines of Code	Errors	Errors per Line of Code
Total Errors	144	16.1
Major Errors	17	1.9
Minor Errors	121	13.5
Pending Analysis	6	.7

Problems Reported from the Field

PC BIOS, OS, Applications and Data not compliant
Applications could not recognize Jan 01 00, buffers would load up and stall
Hard coded dates were missed
Not aware of a program that sorted legacy data by year
Two-digit year used in file names became three-digit years (e.g. 99-100) due to unexpected difference in “Y2K-compliant” C compiler.
Extra two digits in the compliant software caused problems when data was transferred to a “downstream” application
Old systems information has been stored with two-digit years. Compliant code does not know what to do with two-digit dates
Leap Year problems
- Unable to query after leap year date
- Archiving and Retrieving messages around 29 Feb failed
- Software looked at future year rather than past year to determine # of days in year. Caused problems going into or out of leap year.