Calculating the cost of year-2000 compliance
Leon A. Kappelman, Darla Fent, Kellie B. Keeling, Victor R. Prybutok · Communications of the ACM · 1998
The cost of updating and/or replacing information technology for Y2K compliance is highly situational and depends on an organization's specific internal and external factors. Cost estimation should include costs of project management, direct labor and identification of affected software, affected data and alternative solutions, testing, and implementation. The difference in estimated percentage cost found between top Information Services (IS) managers and Y2K project managers indicates that managers need to work toward a shared vision of Y2K projects within their organizations, especially since this difference appears to increase as projects progress into later-planning stages. If project managers' estimates prove correct, budgets for Y2K compliance may increase considerably as progress continues, from roughly 20% up to 35% or more of the annual IS budget of the enterprise. There appears to be no significant project cost savings associated with partial, that is, logic-only, Y2K solutions as opposed to full expansion of all date fields.