Rajeev G.Mavinkurve's answers to Y2K FAQs

Infact, it is not just automated systems. Every process & procedure needs to be given attention.. The stationary like receipts, invoices, memos, etc which has "19" printed for century field of the date is the classic example of a non-automated process. The security entry card system will also be plagued by this & may cause a severe crisis by not allowing the key personnel into premises in the new millenium.

Unfortunately, not much attention has been focussed on areas other than IT.

The international calendar currently followed is Julian calendar with the Gregorian correction or its simply called the Gregorian Calendar.

According to this,

1. All non-century years divisible by four are leap years.
2. All century years divisible by 400 is a leap year.
   Which means 1900 & 2100 are not a leap years while year 2000 is a leap year.

I am cent-per-cent sure about this. I have framed an infinite years calendar on single sheet of paper. That time I had researched about how & when calendars where modified.

Pope Gregory in his papal bull of 1582 A.D promulgated this correction. However, it was internationally followed only after 1752 A.D.

Well to understand the origin of the problem & the issue attaining gigantic proportion we need to look back at the history.

In olden days when computer systems were developed

1. Technology was in very primitive stage
   1. Building systems was tedious process
      Holerith cards were used. Even a small mistake required recreation of the card.
   2. Data Storage systems were expensive.
2. Nobody expected the systems built expected it to last for ages.
3. Not many standards were available.

As we approached late 1980's & early 1990's many of the techies warned about the imminent danger. However, not much was done due to the following main reasons:

1. Lack of awareness of the problem among the key decision makers.
   Even those who had faint ideas didn't imagine the intensity & proportion to which it will blow up to
2. Even new systems built on top of new system had similar issues due to the following
   1. Compatibility with the base version of the older systems.
      1. Necessity to have compatible sturctures with existing data
      2. Also compatibility with archived/historical data.
   2. Lack of middle-management initiatives for a long term-perspective
      This is mainly due to requirement of these managers to show immediate output & cost-effective solutions.
   3. Cost & Time
      Rectifying the old systems and building new components would involve lot of money and will be time consuming task.
   4. Not my head-ache attitude.

Due to above mentioned issues, everybody thought it was somebody elses activity and nobody took any action.

Its not just one man or set of people's action but its a collective responsibility. Well more than anybody's fault, its a circumstantial issue. We need to learn a lot from this & streamline our ways of action in future.

Rather than blaming Anybody we need to work effectively for overcoming this problem. The key success factors are

1. Creating AWARENESS among all the staff.
2. Formulating the APPROACH taking the holistic view of all process, procedures & systems
3. Getting into ACTION.