Mission Critical Systems - What about the others?

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Given that in some instances mission critical systems are being quoted as a small percentage of the total number of systems that government agencies and companies have, what about those systems which are not being defined "mission critical". I would assume that the systems not so defined have some function or they would not have been programmed in the first place. Are these systems going to be allowed to be "dead in the water"? Although not necessarily critical to the "mission", how will they affect the day to day operations of the company or agency. Do they interact with the "mission critical" systems in any way? If they have not been remediated, and in any way interact with the remediated systems, what is the chance of contamination of the "mission critical" systems?

This concept of "mission critical" has been somewhat unsettling to me for some time. Although there are undeniably systems that "stand alone" or may even be disposable - the sheer number of systems that are being defined or redefined as "non mission critical" makes me wonder if they have only taken care of the tip of the iceberg.

-- Jean (jmacmanu@bellsouth.net), July 22, 1999

Answers

Let's assume that 20% of systems are "mission-critical." That could mean 50+% unemployment within that organization. Government employees will have 2 choices, paper/pen, printouts and calculator OR quit because the work is too overwhelming!

-- dw (y2k@outhere.com), July 22, 1999.

Jean, thanks for raising this question anew. It's bugged me for months.

I seem to recall an estimate that within the Dept. of Defense, Mission Critical systems accounted for less than 10% of all their systems. And if DoD has 50% of all federal systems, that would mean that the "94% complete" statement that John Koskinen is so fond of, seriously mis-represents the scale of the problem. (If my recollection of these values is wrong, I would welcome correction.)

And if remediation has cost $10 billion so far, what will it cost to fix everything? How long will it take? And can these agencies function in the interim?

I doubt that the federal government actually has an accurate inventory of systems. To be fair, such an inventory is extremely hard to do even within one company. The idea of doing one across the myriad of federal agencies with non-standard assets makes me dizzy. (What exactly constitutes a "system"?)

If anyone knows of a definitive government breakdown of critical vs. non critical systems, I'd love to hear about it. I happen to think that this issue is the crazy uncle in the attic that no one wants to talk about.

-- Lewis (aslanshow@yahoo.com), July 22, 1999.


I specifically asked a client (IT director for a Government agency) about what happens to those who are using NON-mission-critical systems and she said, "they go back to paper" !!!!!!!! I doubt folks can simply give up so many systems that have obviously had some value for years, so I would imagine the Y2K assessment, remediation, testing function could conceivably go on for some time as entities try to gradually either replace or bring these less critical systems back on line.

-- T.E. (applpie@aol.com), July 22, 1999.

How about this question- Are YOU mission critical? to your employer? to your government?

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), July 22, 1999.

I think a better question is why a system that was considered critical last month, isn't this month? We have seen the number go down and down just about everywhere. I once said as a joke that the definition of mission-critical is any system that is fixed by the rollover. Doesn't seem so funny now... <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), July 22, 1999.


Somebody's ox is going to be gored.

-- dave (wootendave@hotmail.com), July 22, 1999.

There are a lot of programs (software) developed just because they can be. (Sort of: Why climb Mt. Everest? Because it's there.) They serve very little real economic purpose, but some company executive or government bureacrat mandates it. (Keeps me employed.)

For a real close example, look at the web. For every real "cool" application like this forum, there are dozens done by people with more time and/or money than sense.

Look at your utility bills. They use to be one page. Now there's two pages of taxes itemized, local calls, not so local calls, intrastate calls, interstate calls. Even if you're on vacation and haven't used the phone for a month, you get a six to eight page bill. Perhaps the government and the utilities might consider the programming to generate those bills to be "mission critical". I don't.

I could go into many other examples in different industries and government bureaucracies, but I hope you get the point.

-- vbProg (vbProg@MicrosoftAndIntelSuck.com), July 22, 1999.


Its only mission critical if IT chiefs have to find money for its repair. I've seen backup systems not placed on mission critical lists and yet if they fail and the main system fails, then what???

Justthinkin

-- just thinkin (y2k@justthinkin.com), July 22, 1999.


With some organizations, "mission critical" is defined as those systems that are fixed... Others, that would take too long or are too costly to remediate, have been removed.

As a practical matter, many systems are not mission critical (absolutely essential), but improve the organization's efficiency. If these go down, the organization will limp along, but with decreased efficiency. The question is: how bad is the cumulative decrease? This will cause degradations in marketing, production, delivery, and administration...which will noticibly hurt the organization's bottom line...or capability to perform its mission. If it goes on too long, there will be market repercussions...or even firms going under.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), July 22, 1999.


Because most systems are interconnected, a non-compliant system can infect other systems, whether it is critical or noncritical. If an organization really wants to protect itself from unremediated noncritical systems, it needs to disconnect them and shut them down. This is similar to a quarantine during an epidemic.

Since very few organizations have done this, it seems apparent to me that "mission critical" is a meaningless concept. It is only a subterfuge to keep from admitting that the organization is unwilling or unable to fix its Y2K problems.

-- Mr. Adequate (mr@adequate.com), July 22, 1999.



One of my daughters works for a Judge at a Social Security Hearings and Appeals center. Their contingency plan in the event of disruptions IS to go back to manual paper and pen processing. My daughter went to the longest-employed person in the office, who had actually been there when they did process applications without computers. She asked her opinion about the delays which would be caused by a return to manual processing. The woman's best guess, based on the increase in work load from past times to the present, was that an application which now takes 4 to 8 weeks to process from start to finish would take 4 to 6 months, minimum, to get done. Even being two weeks without their computer programs would set them back a _lot_ and applicants would have a longer wait. The good news was at least there is still somebody there who has done manual processing in the event it does become necessary.

-- Bonnie Camp (bonniec@mail.odyssey.net), July 22, 1999.

Never forget...EVERY system is critical to SOMEONE!!!



-- K. Stevens (kstevens@It's ALL going away in January.com), July 23, 1999.


Interesting comments. vbProg, I know exactly what you mean about apps that exist solely due to a high cool factor, but add very little to productivity. (Write them?, Moi?)

Undocumented amateur databases and fancy spreadsheets are everywhere in medium/large organizations. Are they mission critical? Well, as someone once said: "If it's not mission critical, why are you using it?

It's the cumulative effect on productivity that worries me.

-- Lewis (aslanshow@yahoo.com), July 23, 1999.


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