Re: Interesting article...

[Steve Richter <stephenrichter@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 5/4/05, Wilt, Charles <CWilt@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I believe you're missing the point of the article.  The point wasn't that 
> "legacy systems are bound to fail"; the point was that management failed to 
> realize the risk they were running "getting by" with a system that didn't 
> really meet the current needs very well.
> 
> I don't know where you heard that the hard coded limitation was known, but 
> even if that was indeed true, I'd imagine that no one understood what 
> exceeding that limit was going to do.  Again, management (and IT) failed to 
> realize the risk they were running.

slashdot is the place to get the best news on this topic:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/26/052212&from=rss

People must have known of the limit.  Comair was not the only airline
to use the package and it had been in use for many years.  Other
airlines would have hit the limit and users who specialized in
operating the system would have taken their experience with them as
they moved from job to job.  So were there people in the Comair
organization who knew of the software limitations?  I have little
doubt.  Did DP management know of the limitations?  If they did not
then they were not very good managers.

-Steve

> 
> Charles Wilt
> iSeries Systems Administrator / Developer
> Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America
> ph: 513-573-4343
> fax: 513-398-1121
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Nathan Andelin
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 11:22 PM
> > To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> > Subject: Re: Interesting article...
> >
> >
> > I followed the Comair story fairly closely as it was
> > unraveling.  The age of the system didn't cause it to
> > fail.  It had a hard coded capacity of 32K schedules
> > per month, which the airline finally exceeded due to
> > growth and weather related traffic.  The system
> > performed reliably as designed.  The capacity
> > limitation was known.
> >
> > Rather than making a generalization that legacy
> > systems are "bound to fail", the article should have
> > emphasized a management culture and approach that was
> > "bound to fail".
> >
> >
> > --- "Wilt, Charles" <CWilt@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > All,
> > >
> > > Ran across this article which I found quite
> > > interesting....
> > >
> > > Bound To Fail
> > > The crash of a critical legacy system at Comair is a
> > > classic risk management mistake that cost the
> > > airline $20 million and badly damaged its
> > > reputation.
> > >
> > > http://www.cio.com/archive/050105/comair.html
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > How many of us are working with a legacy application
> > > system held together by spit and duct tape that we
> > > know really should be replaced?
> > >
> > > Charles Wilt
> > > iSeries Systems Administrator / Developer
> > > Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America
> > > ph: 513-573-4343
> > > fax: 513-398-1121
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> > > (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
> > > To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
> > > visit:
> > >
> > http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
> > > or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Before posting, please take a moment to review the
> > > archives
> > > at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
> > >
> > >
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> > http://mail.yahoo.com
> > --
> > This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> > (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
> > To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
> > visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
> > or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
> > at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
> >
> >
> 
> --
> This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
> To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
> visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
> or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
> at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
> 
>