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Extra Y2K Due Diligence

Data Integrity Accelerates US Air Force Y2K Testing and Compliance

Waltham, MA - September 22, 1999
The United States Air Force has contracted with Data Integrity, Inc. (dii), developer of breakthrough automated Year 2000 solutions, to implement Millennium CrossCheck™, the leading independent verification and validation (IV&V) Y2K code inspection tool. Millennium CrossCheck is being used to search the entire portfolio of the Air Force's mainframe COBOL computer code to identify Y2K bugs in systems that have already undergone Y2K repairs and certification.

The Air Force joins other major organizations, such as the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bank of America, United Healthcare and Siemens Westinghouse, in adopting Millennium CrossCheck. The tool was selected because its  patented, unique search technique examines computer code differently from any other Y2K tool and thus finds lingering bugs that no other tool can identify. In addition, its flexibility and ease of use allow it to complement the Air Force's existing Y2K methodologies. And its speed delivers results in hours, whereas other tools take days or weeks to process code.

Senior Air Force officers and IT managers decided that code inspection is a necessary complement to the exhaustive Y2K remediation and testing already completed. Because the department's mainframe computer programs handle highly sensitive and mission critical operations, it was determined that final, additional inspection of remediated code was instrumental to the Air Force achieving real Y2K compliance.

Millennium CrossCheck addresses the crucial need for more accurate identification of Y2K-sensitive code than is offered by conventional glossary, or pattern matching, search techniques incorporated in Y2K windowing tools. Conventional Y2K search methods identify programmer-defined date variables, a flawed search technique that misses 5 to 20 percent of Y2K bugs and causes extensive problems during Y2K testing. Millennium CrossCheck examines legacy source code (Cobol, PL/1, Assembler, RPG for AS/400) for standard mathematical and logical operations that yield errors when the calendar moves from 1999 to 2000 and beyond. This unique analytical method eliminates Y2K bugs because every math operation and logical compare is checked. According to a recent report by industry analyst Meta Group, Y2K errors cost 10 times as much if found via testing than by code inspection.

"The Air Force recognizes the value of Y2K code inspection that uses a different search technique," said Allen G. Burgess, President of Data Integrity. "Because we're unique, we find the errors missed by glossary search tools earlier in the Y2K repair process. It's like having a fresh pair of eyes reviewing your code. At various customer sites, Millennium CrossCheck typically finds 100 lingering errors per million lines of repaired code. Millennium CrossCheck spares organizations major Y2K headaches next January." 

Instead of the conventional Y2K search methods, which identify programmer-defined date variables, Millennium CrossCheck examines legacy source code (Cobol, PL/1, Assembler, RPG for AS/400) for standard mathematical and logical operations that yield errors when the calendar moves from 1999 to 2000 and beyond. This unique analytical method eliminates Y2K bugs because every math operation and logical compare is checked.

Millennium CrossCheck evaluates millions of lines of code in days. In field tests, one programmer on one PC used Millennium CrossCheck to validate 500,000 lines of code in eight hours. The tool runs on a variety of PC platforms and provides a simple, easy-to-learn user interface and procedures. Users are trained and can begin evaluating their own code in less than a day. The product is used either by in-house staff at the customer site, without consulting support, or in Data Integrity's Millennium Express factory with dii Y2K service consultants; Millennium Express also conducts factory work at the customer site.

Staff Writer
CNET News.com