New UK Inland Revenue Y2K related computer failure

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The UK Inland Revenue (like the USA IRS) is experiencing bad computer problems right now, and I'm not getting that from a news source, I'm getting it from my partner who has to deal with the fallout on a daily basis.

Their Tax Office IT departments were told yesterday (Tuesday 16-Nov-1999) that there was central Y2K testing of the archival storage being performed, but that it would not effect the (recently installed) main system. All day yesterday, the main system experienced freezes and crashes. It's been dogged by problems since it was put in, but this was completely new, it's never actually crashed before.

According to the government booklet sent to every household in the UK, the Inland Revenue is 100% complete. So, what are they still doing Y2K testing for? Well, according to this official government site, it's only "expected" to be complete, based on projected(!) figures for SEPTEMBER. The Inland Revenue's own Y2K page is still talking about Y2K remediation in PRESENT TENSE. So they're not done.

OK, the issue of whether it was the Y2K testing that caused the main computer fault is a matter of faith. It would be very, very scarey if as well as being late, and having outstanding fatal bugs, they didn't even know the dependencies within their own systems. It would be scary, but it wouldn't surprise me. On balance, I DO believe it.

Sorry that I can't provide evidence for this. :(

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), November 17, 1999

Answers

Colin -

Thanks for that post. I echo your sentiments, few complex organisations TRULY understand their dependencies both from an IT perspective or the supply chain scenario. This is why I get so mad about the governments PR campaign about 'facts not fiction' - most of what is written in that leaflet is so shallow as to be effectively useless.

One of these days I will throw a brick at my TV when the ad comes on...

-- Rob Somerville (merville@globalnet.co.uk), November 17, 1999.


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