Y2K - Canadian Government Systems 99% Ready Says Ottawa

By Jennifer Ditchburn The Canadian Press 8-11-99

OTTAWA (CP) -- The federal government's most important computer systems and equipment are 99 per cent ready to meet the year 2000, says a coming federal report.

That reading is as good as Canadians can expect from officials, since they say it is virtually impossible to declare a system fail-safe even under normal circumstances.

"This is very enviable from a lot of points of view, if you consider the size and machinery of the government," said Guy McKenzie, assistant deputy minister for the Treasury Board Secretariat.

"The goal is to have all the functions operational, and when you reach 99 per cent you are operationally ready."

The government has spent $2.5 billion to date to fix its systems in time for New Year's Eve, and 11,000 people have participated in Y2K-related work.

Some government functions such as Old Age Security, Employment Insurance and the Health Department have gone ahead and pronounced themselves 100 per cent ready, having rooted out any potential bugs.

Non-critical government systems, such as computers used for non-essential tasks in federal offices, are considered 94 per cent ready.

This is a big change from the auditor general's reading of the government's state of readiness early last year, when he noted 50 per cent of critical operations were prepared.

Still, McKenzie cautions that there will never be any guarantees that there won't be some computer failures in and outside government.

"We don't want to say to people that this is a blanket assurance. That's not the case.

"Anyone dealing with computerized systems knows that some mornings your system goes down, and you have difficulty finding out why. That's a fact of life."

The federal government now is focusing much of its energies studying the state of readiness of Canada's major trading partners, as well as making sure Canadians are well informed and not panicked.

A new pamphlet is scheduled to be mailed out to millions of homes this fall reminding people they should evaluate what the Y2K risks are in their homes and communities and make reasonable preparations.

Internally, the government will be busy producing contingency plans for all its essential systems to make sure business will continue after Jan. 1 in the event of a failure.

"I think it's a matter of waiting the five months, and we'll find out real quick who's been on top of this and who has not," said year 2000 watcher Joe Boivin.

U.S. President Bill Clinton said in a memo to his cabinet this week that "federal agencies have completed, or will soon complete, work on their mission-critical systems," stopping short of attaching a percentage to the status report.

Canada and the United States are generally regarded as running neck-and-neck in Y2K preparedness.

[and if you believe THAT I'm the jolly green Giant :) Andy ]

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 12, 1999

Answers

HO! HO! HO!

-- J.G.G. (jolly@green.com), August 12, 1999.

C'mon, Andy, you know how this works. Burson-Marsteller and Hill and Knowlton probably did some "market research" and came to the conclusion that "99%" is the magic number. Then organizations picked the "most important computer systems and equipment" that would fit into that claim. I have a feeling that payroll is not considered one of the "most important computer systems"...

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), August 12, 1999.

Old joke in project management: "The first 90% of work on a project takes 50% for your schedule. The last 10% takes the other 50%."

Projects can and do stay at "99% and holding" for months, even years, slipping schedule day-for-day. Unfortunately, that last "1%" (especially if it means "in production, running without show-stoppers, and fully available") can make all the difference.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), August 12, 1999.

Yup - we'll all still be at 99% at rollover too - then we'll find out that 99% = 33%...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 12, 1999.

Instead of red trucks, I'm now seeing 99 everywhere...cannot force myself to walk into the 99cent store......:-)

-- Shelia (Shelia@active-stream.com), August 12, 1999.