Summary: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lagged in making its computer systems ready for the year 2000. At its present rate, FAA will not make it in time. The agency has been severely behind schedule in completing basic awareness activities, a critical first phase in an effective Year 2000 program. For example, FAA appointed its initial program manager for Year 2000 issues only six months ago, and its overall Year 2000 strategy is not yet final. FAA also does not know the extent of its Year 2000 problem because it has not completed most of the key activities in the assessment phase, the second critical phase in an effective Year 2000 program. The potential serious consequences include degraded safety, grounded or delayed flights, higher airline costs, and customer inconvenience. Delays in completing awareness and assessment activities also leave FAA little time for critical renovation, validation, and implementation efforts--the final three phases in an effective Year 2000 program. With two years left, FAA is quickly running out of time, making contingency planning for continuity of operations even more critical. FAA estimates that the entire program will cost $246 million, although the agency lacks the information it needs to develop reliable cost estimates. GAO summarized this report in testimony before Congress; see: Year 2000 Computing Crisis: FAA Must Act Quickly to Prevent Systems Failures, by Joel C. Willemssen, Director of Civil Agencies Information Systems Issues, before the Subcommittee on Technology, House Committee on Science, and the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology, House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. GAO/T-AIMD-98-63, Feb. 4 (14 pages).
