In an effort to conserve memory, date fields in existing software, hardware, and firmware use a six-digit date field in which two digits designate the year. Unfortunately, the Year 2000 and the years that follow are not as cooperative. This is just one example of a wide variety of problems that can result from two digit years in date fields. The scope of the Year 2000 challenge spans the entire IT frontier. What makes this Year 2000 issue such a challenge is its sheer size.
Dates are everywhere in computer systems and software.
Neither industry, nor the federal government, has yet definitively mapped and identified the full scope of the situation. The federal Government has adopted a five step approach to obtain Y2K compatibility. In order to achieve this goal, the Agency realizes that understanding the key phases associated with achieving Y2K compatibility and the alternatives for dealing with them is a must. One of the greater challenges IT community faces is getting started. The principal purpose will be to analyze the information in order to determine the size and scope of the problem.