Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Year 2000 Initiatives
Abstract
Information technology systems have typically used two digits to represent the year, such as "98" representing 1998, to conserve electronic data storage and reduce operating costs. With the two-digit format, however, the year 2000 is indistinguishable from 1900. As a result of this ambiguity, computers and associated systems and application programs that use dates to calculate, compare, and sort could generate incorrect results when working with years after 1999. This is one of a series of reports being issued by the Inspector General, DoD, in accordance with an informal partnership with the Chief Information Officer, DoD, to monitor DoD efforts to address the year 2000 computing challenge. The overall audit objective was to determine whether the initiatives of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and its field activities to address the year 2000 computer problems were effective and whether they complied with the DoD Year 2000 Management Plan. We also were to evaluate the management control program as it applied to the audit objectives, but because it was urgent to report the audit results to senior management, we did not formally evaluate related management controls.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 16, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA368254
Entities
Organizations
- Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Defense