Just reviewed the Year 2000 sections of the current GAO report of the US Postal Service:

US Postal Service

Though I'd point out a couple of textbook "Project Red Flags" from this report:

(1) Their milestone for remediation was Sept. 30, 1998. On Sept. 29, 1998 (i.e., "the day before the deadline"), they reported that they weren't going to make it. They completely missed the milestone and they told no one until the day before, which is a strong indicator of both poor project management and inadequate executive/management oversight.

(2) They report "challenges" hanging on to capable remediation staff and no clear plan to address these "challenges." Staff turnover and no way to address it, which invariably impacts task completion. The work doesn't get done; the systems don't get fixed. Rabbits in the headlights...

There are other items, but I'll let y'all find 'em. There are well-documented methods for managing software projects to success, and seemingly numberless ways for projects to fail. All the success factors have to be put in place and maintained. That's just the way it works...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), February 08, 1999

Answers

As far as the PO goes, they are promulgating a disinformation program both externally and internally. They tell J.Q. Public they will be compliant while in the next breath they talk about internal non compliance to the troops. How do I know this? Well I'm sorry to say sports fans, I work for these clowns. I'm an Electronic Technician and have worked for them for 14 years. I maintain and repair the machines which make it go. And let me say they are not upright and forthright with Ya'll.Externally they put on the happy face. On the inside they use Y2k to further another agenda. CASE in point. We have a machine that sorts mail with an operator called a Single Position Letter Sorting Machine (SPLSM). These things have been online since about '72 and they workfine and last a long time. Well, about halloween last year my little office(I transfered from Denver to here 6 years ago to get out of the city)gets the notice that these machines will be done away with by May 99 cause they are not Y2k compliant!!. Hell they run off a 5.25" floppy disk. They don't know, nor do they care what century/country/planet they are in. That'e lie #1. They then tell us they have no compliance problems.Excuse me, say that again. NO COMPLIANCE PROBLEMS. That's what I thought I heard. Well they use PDP 11-83's and PDP 11-45's for another mail moving system. It's called the ACDCS(aircraft contract data collection system) and most of the letters you get come to your house that way. DECs PDP 11 series will not hack the Y2k date bug. And guess what? Most of your letter mail is flown to you. About anything that has to travel more than 200 Mi goes thru ACDCS. So us little mouse's watch and wait for the fall. Just my .02 BTW the GURU's are working on a PC front end to replace the PDP's but from what I get as a tech/front line troopie it's too little too late. And to all the whiners who want to bitch me out about the rate increase. 1. If you had to stand in line to buy a 1 cent stamp, where were you about 4 months in advance? We had lots of dead time then.Same thing for income Tax day. 2. If you cry about how much it costs to mail a letter, might I suggest you get in your SUV and drive the mortgage payment to the lender .Otherwise please take this mallet and pound sand in your ass.

later, nine

-- nine (nine_fingers@hotmail.com), February 09, 1999.