Campus Computing Systems and the Millennium

Once upon a time, in the sixties, when computer memory was astronomically expensive and calculation speeds were too slow to deal with extra manipulations, computing shortcuts were necessary. In particular, to minimize data storage, processing, and data entry time in computer programs, the year was typically stored as two digits (97) rather than four (1997).

This has become a problem because computer systems interpret 00 as 1900 rather than 2000. Software that performs arithmetic operations, comparisons, or sorting on dates then fails or yields incorrect results when working with years beyond 1999.

The year 2000 issue is rooted in this decades-old practice. Of course, the assumption was that the code being written was only going to be used for seven to ten years or so and then replaced. As it turns out, many computer programs are well into their twenties and even thirties at this point and not aging well.

Working on the Problem

Although the industry and general press present this as a "crisis" that will indeed cost lots of money, it is not a new issue. Banks that make 30-year loans faced and resolved this question by 1970. However, in the decades since, they have been grappling with payroll, credit card, and other system software that must be changed.

Many of the University of Washington's central systems have already encountered instances where an eight-digit format is required to handle dates in the year 2000 and beyond. For example, in the Payroll & Personnel System, programs with "Visa Expiration Date" had to be modified in 1990. In addition, faculty appointment dates (seven, six, and three-year) have also required changes.

Application programmers began century-related modifications at the beginning of the decade as part of the ongoing systems maintenance. As programs are adapted to meet other requirements, they are modified for the year 2000 as well.

Modifying Computer Systems Used for UW Support Services

Standards for handling the century problem have been adopted for the UW central systems. Data files now contain century information, with two ways to display a date:

• Date File Format:
  CCYYMMDD (century, year, month, day)

• Date Display Formats:
  Standard: MM-DD-YY or
  Optional: MM-DD-CCYY

Since early 1996, ongoing maintenance modifications were formalized into defined tasks and projects for each of the major central systems. The objectives for each project are the following:

• To develop and implement suitable measures to correct century date-change-associated problems

• To guarantee system integrity by testing and verifying that all date-dependent/impacted functions and processes continue to provide the accurate and intended outcome

• To coordinate implementation of modifications into the production application systems

These projects are given very high priority, and work is in progress on all of them.

Taking a System-by-System Approach

Others such as the Parking System or Graduate Records & Alumni Development are being replaced to take advantage of new technologies and to meet new user requirements. Yet others will require a change of hardware and software, as with the Facilities Services' Client Billing, Materials Management, and Preventive Maintenance systems, which are still operating on an ancient (in terms of computing) PDP 11/44.

The largest efforts to address the century problems will be in the following systems:

• Student Systems
• Financial Systems
• Purchasing & Accounts Payable Systems
• Payroll & Personnel Systems

The staff responsible for these systems are devoting the necessary time between now and the end of the century to identifying and eliminating problems and to systems testing.

When dealing with extremely complex technology, exaggerated self-confidence may often lead to disaster. So C&C is not making light of the seriousness of year 2000 issue, or claiming that there will be absolutely no problems. Instead, a professional and technically thorough approach is being undertaken by staff who are intimately familiar with these systems.

Assessing Your Department's Systems

A checklist of systems areas to review include the following:

• Operating systems

• Database management systems

• Network management programs

• Programs and processes that contain date comparisons, edits, sorts, and date-dependent calculations

• Systems that provide/produce date displays on screens, printouts, reports, and other media

• Databases, disk files, tape files, etc.

• Batch and online processes

• Systems that exchange (feed and/or receive) data from other systems, both internal and external to the university

• Process control systems

• Programs that prompt for dates

• Custom macros in products such as Excel, Word, etc.

Finding More Information

You can do a Web search to find information yourself, or you may wish to start by browsing a resource page from the University of California Los Angeles at www.ais.ucla.edu/ Year2000/y2karticles.htm

From there you can find articles, organizations, and vendors. IBM, for example, has a "Year 2000" Web page (www.ibm.com/IBM/year2000/).

You also can visit the Washington State "Year 2000 Project Information Resource Center site (www.wa.gov/dis/ 2000/y2000.htm) offered by the Department of Information Services.

A commercial Web site, "The Year 2000 Information Center" (www.year2000.com/), has links to vendors and also keeps track--down to the second--of the time that remains until January 1, 2000.