From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f43e6,d7ca596553ea30d0,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,d7ca596553ea30d0,start X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,d7ca596553ea30d0,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: ff6c8,d7ca596553ea30d0,start X-Google-Attributes: gidff6c8,public X-Google-Thread: 10db24,d7ca596553ea30d0,start X-Google-Attributes: gid10db24,public From: cseic@sw-eng.falls-church.va.us (CFCSEIC) Subject: CFCSEIC News Briefs Week Ending February 27, 1998 Date: 1998/02/27 Message-ID: <6d79a8$c90@ns1.sw-eng.falls-church.va.us> X-Deja-AN: 329259455 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Organization: Center For Computer Systems Engineering Information Clearinghouse Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.sw.components,comp.object,comp.software-eng,comp.edu Date: 1998-02-27T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Center for Computer Systems Engineering News Briefs Week Ending: February 27, 1998 **************************************************************************** CONTENTS: OMB MOVES UP Y2K DEADLINE CALCULATING THE COST OF Y2K COMPLIANCE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS IMPACT REAL-WORLD SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ADA + JAVA = FUN ************************************************************************** OMB MOVES UP Y2K DEADLINE Topic: Y2K An article in the Feb. 23rd edition of Government Computer News reviews the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB's) new deadline for the completion of date code fixes. OMB Director Franklin D. Raines has issued a memorandum to agency chiefs stating that he wants all mission-critical and non-mission-critical systems Y2k-ready by March 1999, eight months earlier than the previous November 1999 deadline. Agencies must complete all code renovations by September 1998 and all code testing by January 1999. The new deadlines leave agencies 11 months to implement system fixes, resolve unexpected problems that arise during implementation, and check and correct all interfaces with systems run by outside entities such as state and local governments and industry. According to the article, the OMB memorandum also directs agencies to make explicit triage decisions as they prioritize their work, and to establish contingency plans for systems that will not be ready in time. Source: Christopher J. Dorobek, "OMB moves up 2000 deadline", Government Computer News, v17, n4, p.1. http://www.gcn.com ****************************************************************************** *************** CALCULATING THE COST OF Y2K COMPLIANCE Topic: Y2K Most Y2K program managers use size measures such as lines of code, number of function points and dollars of annual information systems spending to estimate the cost of fixing Y2k problems, but these generic cost-estimation approaches are prone to error when applied to specific enterprises. In an article in the February edition of Communications Communications of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), the authors use data from a study conducted by the Society of Information Management's (SIM's) Year 2000 Working Group to explore the relationship between an enterprise, its Y2k problems, the solutions it chooses, and the impact that availability and management of resources have on the process of cost estimation. Source: Leon A. Kappelman, Darla Fent, Kellie B. Keeling, and Victor Prybutok, "Calculating the Cost of Year-2000 Compliance", Communications of the ACM, Feb. 1998, v41, n2, pp. 30-39. http://acm.org ****************************************************************************** *************** VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS IMPACT REAL-WORLD SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT Topic: Software Engineering In the past, virtual environments (VEs) were built as games involving the exploration of rooms containing various obstacles and opponents. Recent research has focused on the viability of using VEs to aid work and collaboration in the real world. In an article in the January issue of The ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, the authors discuss their investigation of the use of multi-user dimensions (MUDs) in the area of software development and their creation of a system, Promo, which permits the modeling and execution of software processes by geographically dispersed agents. Source: John C. Doppke, Dennis Heimbigner, and Alexander L. Wolf, "Software Process Modeling and Execution within Virtual Environments, The ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, v7, n1, pp. 1-40. http://www.acm.org/tosem. ****************************************************************************** *************** ADA + JAVA = FUN Topic: Ada It may have been around for a while, but the ancient African game of Mancala was brought into the modern computer age by the merger of two high-tech companies, software developer Intermetrics, Inc. of Burlington, MA, and game developer Looking Glass Studios, located in Cambridge, MA. Designed in Ada, using Java applets, this new version of Mancala can be played on the Web at http://www.inmet.com/~stt/mancala.html. ****************************************************************************** *************** The DISA CFCSEIC welcomes suggestions for and pointers to software engineering-related articles. Contact the DISA CFCSEIC at: mailto:info@sw-eng.falls-church.va.us To subscribe to the "Center for Computer Systems Engineering News Brief" electronic mailing list, send a message to: mailto:listproc@sw-eng.falls-church.va.us In the body of the message, write: subscribe newslist To unsubscribe, write: unsubscribe newslist No signatures please. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Center for Computer Systems Engineering Information Clearinghouse (CFCSEIC) "Center for Computer Systems Engineering News Briefs" is a compilation of summaries from software engineering-related articles in trade magazines, newsletters and press releases. For subscription information about the CFCSEIC DII COE Q&A LISTSERV, point to: .