Y2kNews 11 January 2000
 The heroes of Y2k
 By Judy Backhouse

 The truly crazy ones headed for the hills with fortified bunkers and ammunition.
 The more cautious ones bought water and canned food.
 Even the most optimistic ones drew some extra cash the week before.
 Everyone speculated about the outcome.

 But in the IT world, we worked.

 We checked code.

 We corrected code.

 We tested code.

 We rolled dates forward and backward and forward and backward
 until our nerves were paper-thin.

 We upgraded hardware.

 We upgraded operating systems (to cope with the new hardware).

 We upgraded compilers (to cope with the new operating systems).

 We modified more code (to cope with the new compilers).

 And then we began the cycle again of testing and rolling forward
 and testing and rolling backward.

 We initiated great, complex Y2k projects.

 We compiled project plans.

 We filled in endless forms about the state of our Y2k projects.

 We wrote monthly reports about the progress of the Y2k projects.

 We went to meetings where we were told how the future of the
 company depended on the Y2k project being completed in time.

 We dealt with panicked business people.

 We soothed troubled nerves at dinner parties.

 We were asked to predict the outcome by distant cousins who
 knew we were "in IT".

 We became overnight experts in the working of diesel generators,
 photocopiers, motor vehicles and washing machines.

 And, collectively, we averted the disaster.

 Like superman of old, the IT professionals of today managed to
 intercept nothing less than the end of the world.   In an industry
 where projects run notoriously over the most pessimistic time
 estimates, we met the deadline.

 The clocks ticked over to the year 2000 with nothing more than
 minor hitches.

 And were they grateful? Did the world thank us and laud us as the
 heroes we quite clearly were?

 No!

 They turned around and called it "all hype".

 They questioned the money spent.

 We did our jobs so damned well that the only question remaining
 was whether there had been any need to do the job at all.

So, to all those IT people out there who slaved away at the Y2k
problems over the past few years, who endured the pressure of fearful
but helpless managers; who lost endless sleep testing things at night
because there wasn't a separate test machine; who cancelled their
December leave; who couldn't be in exotic places to welcome the start
of the new millennium; who stayed sober on New Year's eve because they
were on standby; who went to work on the 1st and the 2nd to boot up the
machines - I say put your feet up, pat yourselves and each other on the
back and go and get some much needed sleep with a smug smile on your
face.

 We did it.

The IT people across the planet are heroes - even if unsung ones.  Like
housework, what we do is not appreciated unless we don't do it.  But
like the housewives of old we go on doing it, knowing that it is good,
honest, necessary work - and that it gives us inordinate power.

So, my fellow programmers, system administrators, database
administrators, operators, analysts and support staff - congratulations
on a job well done.

Ours may be the youngest profession on the planet, but this 21st
century belongs to us.

Judy Backhouse is an IT professional who does freelance writing in her
free time.
Online Editor: Carel Alberts +27 11 789-1808
@ Copyright 1999 Systems Publishers (Pty) Ltd - All Rights Reserved