On This Day Pre-Y2K

Confused by any of the jargon you see below? Check the Y2K Glossary!

April 18, 1999 Permalink

I was involved with one project where 17 individual applications (each with their own independent infrastructure, their own staffing consisting of a smorgasborg of employees and contractors from 3 different companies and their own offices stretching across the continent) were bundled into a single “umbrella” project and promptly mismanaged into the ground. There was a particular piquancy to the way that deliberate misdirection and political infighting between the different teams hastened the downfall of the “vision”. Ultimately, though, it was simple changing priorities and unmet deadlines that put the final stake through it’s heart.

In the best of all possible worlds, there will be more problems because of lies, stupidity and ignorance in Y2K projects than the pollyannas think will be caused by the whole context of the Glitch.

This is not the best of all possible worlds.

—Jim Abel, comp.software.year-2000, 04/18/99

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