Delete consultants? Really?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Delete what the consultants say? Ya' sure? Well, consider this. I am a consultant. I am currently contracted at huge corporation until past the end of the year. This gig involves Y2K remediation so I'll skip it.

How about if I tell you about previous contract sites and how they are doing on Y2K? Nothing in it for me. Those contracts have ended. I'm employed until past roll over now so I have no reason to scare anyone.

I have already posted about the status of my former employers, while allowing them to remain nameless. Here's a summary.

'95 - '97 A large finacial based in the New York area. By the time I left they hadn't even thought about Y2K testing. If they're doing it now, they're late. Too many systems.

'97 - '98 A Vey Large finacial firm. A house hold name. They got marching orders to have all systems compliant by end of '98. They ran a very superficial Y2K test that involved date roll forwards only. The whole thing took about a month, from set up to break down. It's possible that the system could have been completly tested in this amount of time, but what struck me was the "Let's get this over with so we can go back to work" attitude. It was just a box on a form to be checked off with these people.

'98 - '99 Wirless communication firm. Preperation consists of calling vendors to hear them tell us verbally that the software is good to go. That is all. And these same vendors sold junk that we can't keep running now when things are normal. That shop is so bad they may not notice a major Y2K induced failure.

As a consultant I get to see alot of IT shops in a short amount of time. I can draw on experience and compare what I've seen with what the official line is vs the rumors about what's goin on behind the press release. For the most part, the rumors of fluff testing and lack of technical expertise match my experience.

And that's another thing. When did the Evil Emporer Ming turn the stupid ray on North America? I have had "experts", the people who are responsible for running the tests, prove unable to find the floppy disk drives on PC workstations! Or ask me what the application generated error messages mean when THEY WROTE the application! Then there was the time when, after installing a temporary software license good for 30 days, one test director decided he didn't need to wait for the permanent license to roll the date forward to next year. Then he asks me "What does 'license expired' mean?"

It means we're all gonna die.

Or we find a way to beat y2k with the Keystone Coders.

I always had a world view that mankind could eventually solve any problem. That I should never underestimate the resourcefulness of people. Turns out that stupidity is a force to be reckoned with in it's own right.

Rant mode off

Watch six and keep your...

-- eyes_open (best@wishes.net), June 29, 1999

Answers

It's possible that the system could have been completly tested in this amount of time, but what struck me was the "Let's get this over with so we can go back to work" attitude. It was just a box on a form to be checked off with these people.

One of the things that still worries me most is that far, far too many people -- consultants, staffers, programmers, analysts, managers, operators, engineers, auditors, everybody -- have been far more interested in conducting superficial "investigations" to allow them to dismiss Y2K problems rather than conducting critical investigations to determine if they have Y2K problems and, if so, how serious they are.

-- Lane Core Jr. (elcore@sgi.net), June 29, 1999.


For context, see br14's comment here.

-- regular (zzz@z.z), June 29, 1999.

"Stupid Ray" Good One...!!!

You can bet people aren't going to believe what you say 'cause:

A) You don't give a real name

B) No real e-mail

C) No techno-speak

D) You don't give transmorgifier LAN/STRAN/SCHMANN codes

E) You make sound way too rational...! (grin)

Who is it that says "Water, water, food, shelter" or..."pot, kettle, black...!"

Thanks for the insider info

M.Moth

-- M.Moth (Derigueur2@aol.com), June 29, 1999.


OK. I vote that we keep the consultants.

(Stupid ray! LOL)

Lane, I share your concern. I saw with my own eyes an audit that a big, well-known consulting firm did of a supplier to the auto industry. It got a grade called "green light" overall, meaning it would be good to go. Of course within the audit not all segments examined were ready yet. Some segments got yellow lights; and work on the network itself here at HQ still had to begin. But they expected they would be done in time. They had over a year to go at the time. The audit just covered the corporate offices, by the way. Not the manufacturing plant in Mexico. The guy who sent it to me wanted me to see that "everyone" was working on it. But I could see this guy at the auto company, opening all these reports, glancing at the final grade on this one's cover, entering it in a data base as "green". Another compliant supplier. Next report . . .

-- Faith Weaver (suzsolutions@yahoo.com), June 29, 1999.


I think you can find the "stupid rays" on the shelf next to the "happy pills" at the discount store, on special for the millennium...

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), June 29, 1999.


Have never heard it better said. Happy pills and stupid rays for everyone!!!!!

This is what we get for allowing Jerry Springer and Monica Lewinsky's underwear to dominate our national discourse.

Liberal Media I Hold Thee Responsible. Thou holdeth the Stupid Ray In Thy Hands......

-- Jim Smith (cyberax@ix.netcom.com), June 29, 1999.


Lane wrote:

One of the things that still worries me most is that far, far too many people... have been far more interested in conducting superficial "investigations" to allow them to dismiss Y2K problems rather than conducting critical investigations to determine if they have Y2K problems and, if so, how serious they are.

Sounds like a good description of the federal banking regulators' Y2K Assessments. 97% Satisfactory??? Hhhaaaaaaahhhaaaaaaahhhaaaaa!!!

-- Nabi Davidson (nabi7@yahoo.com), June 29, 1999.


Awww, Jim, let's not be too hard on the media. They're just doing their job---as defined by their corporate bosses. Poor guys, they're good Germans "just following orders."

Hallyx

"Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous.... By closing the eyes and slumbering, and consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit everywhere, which still is built on purely illusory foundations." --- Henry David Thoreau

-- (Hallyx@aol.com), June 29, 1999.


The Stupid Ray reaches its greatest power level when channeled through the Boob Tube.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), June 30, 1999.

IMNSHO: The "Let's get this over with so we can get back to work" attitude is the reason why so many shops are using windowing or going back to 1972 as work-arounds instead of fixing the problem. Patches are more likely to just move the point of failure.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), June 30, 1999.


Come on now, if we delete the consultants, we'ld blow away half the forum! I can see br14's point, but let's not get too carried away with this new-found "delete" thingie...

However, doesn't Y2K Pro describes himself as a "Y2K CONSULTANT for the aviation industry?" Correct me if I'm wrong... I may have to reconsider my point of view...... <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), June 30, 1999.


I have a cure for Ming's stupid ray, It's, you guessed it, tinfoil hats.

-- John F. (tinfoil hat @nd colanders.com), June 30, 1999.

John F:

And for those beset by nasty Stupid Rays emanating from the Boob Tube, they can use their aluminum TV dinner trays as deflector shields.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), June 30, 1999.


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