State Govt status in Pac NW

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Just finished a two year long effort for a resource mgmt agency in Pac NW state (it doesn't matter which, they are all the same as regards to this resource, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, BC Canada).

We were working to technical direction of the agency in charge of the resource mgmt. This agency contributes over 30 million annually to the general fund. This agency just in December was given a 'green' status on their systems. Our work was deep in the belly of their IS dept. Their status as 'green' is pure politix so the gov'nor can say that the state is good to go. This agency will melt down even if all the code we provided and all the code that the agency workers produced all functions as desired. Reason? well for a starter, this agency is fortressing. No ties to federal or other states that also mgmt this resource. No data sharing. All NGO's no longer can access the agency's data. No updates from other states, feds, or any NGO.

Our team did phenomenal work. Ball busting, gut wrenching, death march for last year. Still we were lucky to get to the 20% of the code that we reached. We started too late, and they had too much that was broken. Even if ALL the fixes work, less than 40% of their critical functions are covered. So they are toast. NONE of the non critical elements are covered, AND they are mostly mainframe based, AND the mainframe can NOT be remediated (no longer produced), AND their client server guys are new to the job, AND their line workers are now starting to realize they have to start using the 25% replacement that we made come next week, AND they are howling about their susposedly non critical systems really being critical. And they are seriously understaffed anyway. So there goes 30+ million to this state, as well as the fed's share of the revenue, as well as data/financial sharing with the other Pac NW states/Canada.

The real issue for our team is that this one agency is no more/worse off than other agencies. So we are projecting pretty much a gov't meltdown in this state as there will be rapid system failures and huge productivity drop starting Mon the 3rd. Other programmers for other agencies also report politix as usual in other agencies and that they are in same situation as our client agency. So effect of productivity drop across the state gov't will be on the order of 60% or greater for months/years.

Happy new year.

Don't count on gov't in future....at least here in Pac NW. BTW: as a state, we started remediation in Dec of 1997 mostly with some agencies getting started in 1998.

Pliney the younger. Relunctantly.

Good luck. Thanks to all the other programmers making the effort. It was not your failure, mgmt let us all down.

-- pliney the younger (pliney@vallier.com), December 27, 1999

Answers

Care to give us a clue as to which "resource" you're talking about? Water? Paper clips? Welfare checks?

All in all, this sounds pretty grim... I think all of us join you in offering thanks to the programmers who worked their asses off for the past two years. What's in store for them now? Will they be expected to keep up the death march for FOF activities starting next Monday?

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), December 27, 1999.


Cool handle there, Pliney. I used to be in a band called Pliny The Elder...we're sort of related. :)

-- Ludi (ludi@rollin.com), December 27, 1999.

Thanks for the info, Pliney *gulp*

Any Cascadian reading this, Ed's essay, and RC's latest expo is gonna have a motivated Start to this LAST WEEK !!

-- Ashton & Leska doomed in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), December 27, 1999.


"Care to give us a clue as to which "resource" you're talking about? Water? Paper clips? Welfare checks?"

As a Pacific Northwesterner, I will second Ed's reasonable question.

-- (RUOK@yesiam.com), December 27, 1999.


Were I a bettin' baseballer i'd be bettin' on LUMBER. T'onliest thin' I can come up wit that would contribut that much to the Genrul Fund.

Night train.

-- jes a tired ol baseballer (nighttr@in.lane), December 27, 1999.



Ed, et al. Sorry to be such a coward, but still would like to get work if possible after new year. Damn fine c programmer and c/s guy so have good skills even if no political head. I will say it (agency) controls a natural resource, like, maybe, you know, say, fishes or trees....something like the former.

Clear as mud?

-- pliney the younger (pliney@vallier.com), December 27, 1999.


They'll be "reallocated" to critical resources, prodded at the end of a barrel, held by a big carrot stick of rations provided. What Koffinsky hinted months ago. Getting drafty hereabouts.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), December 27, 1999.

Timber is way over 30 Million ... salmon endangered already ... water good but not if the raw sewage is dumped into the rivers, which is the current plan ...

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), December 27, 1999.

Oh-Kay!! So the PAC WEST has TWO effing industries!!

FAGH!

Water? Drink WATER? Fish F**K in water!!

thanks bill fields

Night train

-- jes a shortsided ol tired footballer (nighttr@in.lane), December 27, 1999.


Actually we have lotsa vibrant industries in Cascadia. Water, timber (already over-exploited), agriculture, nursery, grass seed, Nike, thriving cities, beautiful fertile farmlands, and uh, the silicon forest, ya know, like Intel, MicroSucks, etc.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), December 27, 1999.


Probably timber as is common to all NW states. Ever notice what a dip in housing starts does to the stock market?

-- Valkyrie (anon@please.xnet), December 27, 1999.

I just heard on an Oregon PBS radio show that our fearless leaders are all saying everything is "justa wonderful, justa wonderful. The only thing lacking was the bubble machine blowing bubbles in the background.

-- K Taylor (KTaylorOre@webtv.net), December 27, 1999.

Sounds like Fish & Game. Being a Pacific NW resident, YIKES! There has hardly been a word from State .gov about Y2K, just smiley faces, they have been too busy with WTO and doing major CYA. I don't doubt that we could very easily be toast. One redeeming quality is all the natural resources that are available for those that know how to use them in a responsible way. God I hope it is a BITR, but my heart says NO.

Thanks for your info.

-- Sammie (sammiex0@hotmail.com), December 27, 1999.


Pliney (cool name, BTW),

Thanks for going out on a limb here. Let's say, just hypothetically, that it's kind've like what sammie said. Anyone care to conjecture about the ramifications?

-- (RUOK@yesiam.com), December 27, 1999.


I work up here at Boeing in Everett. 'Puters going down the 31st for "testing" and "maintainance". Can't say this is your culprit but you can damn well add it to the list of possibles. Never tried to rivet with a hammer before. Should be a new experience if the power/air compressors go tits up. At least the planes will fall apart before they get into the air. Luck to all.

-- albeebach (ak47@nospam.com), December 28, 1999.


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