Testing systems and ensuring interoperability are costly and difficult tasks. Backman suggests that the major concerns are in management and coordination, not in technology. For example, updating the code in a radar system may require changing only several lines of code. Testing the radar, however, could include several aircraft performing flybys. Not all systems need to be changed, but they all need to be analyzed, Backman states.
Cost savings are possible if corrections concur with general system maintenance.
For example, programmers could take advantage of scheduled testing and maintenance exercises to make required year 2000 changes. Unmaintained systems, he notes, will require much higher costs because of a lack of scheduled testing. The optimal solution depends on user needs and interoperability requirements. As such, that one user could make corrections and then feed the accurate data to the other two users. No universal cost estimates exist for performing the software fix, Backman states.