The Year 2000 Software Problem: Quantifying the Costs and Assessing the Consequences

As the year 2000 rapidly approaches, an anxious clock is ticking for the world business community: When the twentieth century ends, many software applications will either stop working or produce erroneous results because their logic cannot accept the transition from 1999 to 2000. This problem is embedded in millions of aging software applications, and the costs of fixing the year 2000 software problem may constitute the single greatest expense in history.

In this new book, Capers Jones offers a framework for examining the effect that the year 2000 problem will have on your company, placing this timely issue into a practical business perspective. The Year 2000 Software Problem explains what it will cost to address this impending issue, quantifying the expenses by country, industry, programming language, and application. The book further examines the expected results of not achieving year 2000 compliance and estimates what the damages and recovery costs will be.

Highlights include:
An executive overview of the year 2000 problem and why it is significant
A discussion of the impact of repairing databases, repositories, and data warehouses
An explanation of the litigation risks and liability issues associated with this problem
A description of the important topic of year 2000 testing

The information contained in this book will allow you to fully understand what needs to be done to minimize the risks and problems that the year 2000 problem will inevitably bring. The author's pragmatic approach allows you to assess the scope of the problem, identify the appropriate solution strategy, and test and measure the effectiveness of your solution implementation.

Capers Jones is a leading author and speaker on software productivity and measurement as well as the acknowledged expert on the economic impact of the year 2000 software problem. He is a frequent speaker at software engineering conferences. Formerly a senior researcher at IBM's Santa Teresa software laboratory and Assistant Director of Applied Technology at the ITT Programming Technology Center, Jones is Chairman and Founder of Software Productivity Research. He is also a member of IEEE Computer Society and the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG).

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