FCA Info Memo - Farm Credit Administration's Year 2000 Progress Report

Informational Memorandum
Subject:	Farm Credit Administration's Year 2000 Progress Report
Date of Memorandum:	08/13/1998
Expiration Date:
Office:	Information Resources Division
Signed By:	Smith, Stephen
FCA Contact Person:	Smith, Stephen
Contact Phone:	703-883-4275
List of Attachments:	FCA's Year 2000 Unit Testing Status as of July 31 1998

INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM

August 13, 1998

To: Chairman, Board of Directors
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Information Officer
All Farm Credit System Institutions

From: Stephen G. Smith, Chief Information Officer
Information Resources Division

Subject: Farm Credit Administration’s Year 2000 Progress Report

The Farm Credit Administration’s (FCA) action plan (Plan) to achieve Year 2000 (Y2K) compliance requires that we conduct independent testing of critical systems, and that we report our progress to you. Test plans for all mission-critical (MC) systems have been submitted and are undergoing final review. A copy of FCA’s internal tracking report, as of July 31, 1998, showing the status of each of these systems, is attached to this Informational Memorandum.

We are progressing with the testing process. A test system is being developed to simulate FCA’s production hardware and software, as a means to both protect on-going operations and accelerate the completion of testing. This test environment should be in place by September 30, 1998. This will then enable unit testing of FCA's MC-rated systems to be completed by October 31, 1998, and testing of systems rated significant (S) to be completed by December 31, 1998.

We remain confident that all of FCA’s systems that are mission-critical or significant to operations will either be certified as Y2K compliant, or will have contingency plans in place to provide for an alternate or back-up. The use of contingency plans in some areas is unavoidable because services such as the electrical power grid, national and international telephone systems, and the global Internet are outside of FCA’s control, and yet are necessary to support some of the systems we must have to conduct daily operations.

Since our May 28, 1998, progress report, the following additional milestones under the Plan have been accomplished:

We have completed the stand-alone hardware testing of every personal computer and laptop computer in use by the FCA. With the exception of 2 workstations that are approved for replacement prior to calendar yearend 1998, all have passed their tests and have been certified as Y2K compliant.

In June, the National Finance Center, which provides critical payroll and Thrift-Savings Plan services to FCA staff, reported completion of the renovation of all of its systems’ and applications’ Y2K-related, date sensitive code, and return of these systems into “production.”

We completed training of FCA staff to support application testing in June, and test plan development has been moving forward. During the month of July, Y2K compliance test plans were completed for all MC systems. These test plans are now undergoing final review as part of the preparations for unit testing of every application or support service that is considered to be mission-critical or significant to operations. This includes both “traditional” information technology (IT) systems and “non-traditional” technology systems such as office climate and fire control systems and elevators.

In July, the FCS Building Association received approval of its test plans for compliance testing of all the support services significant to the operations of the FCA’s headquarters and field offices.

At this time, hardware and software are being acquired to provide a system that will duplicate FCA’s production IT environment. This will permit testing of hardware, software, and operating interfaces without jeopardizing or halting ongoing work while the tests are being conducted. This will also provide wide flexibility to simulate any scenario and sequence required to test any system.

The internal tracking report shows that the test plans for the unit testing phase for MC and mission-critical non-traditional information technology (MC-S) systems have been submitted for approval and are now beginning to move into the active compliance testing phase. The report also reflects the development of contingency plans for temporary replacement of MC and MC-S systems that either rely on external services not within FCA’s control, or services for which testing is impractical.

The next Y2K Informational Memorandum will be issued in October 1998. More information about FCA’s Y2K Plan may be found at our Internet WEB site, www.fca.gov, under the headings “Y2K Issues” and “News Releases.” If you have any questions regarding this memorandum, please call me at (703) 883-4275, or on the Internet at E-mail address smiths@fca.gov.

Attachment

FCA’s Year 2000 Unit Testing Status
as of July 31, 1998

System Rating	Application Name	Status 6/30	Status 7/31
MC	AST Premium SE 4/33	D	D
MC	Cabletron Concentrators	B	A
MC	Cisco Routers (2501,2516,4500)	B	A
MC	Cisco Catalyst Switch 5000	B	A
MC	Compaq Servers( Proliant 300,1500,6000)	B	A
MC	Dell Notebook Computers (CP,XPiCD)	E	E
MC	Gateway P5-120	E	E
MC	Gateway ( G6-200, G6-266)	E	E
MC	Gateway P5-60	E	E
MC	Printers (Network and Attached)	B	A
MC	Xyplex Concentrator 9000	B	A
MC	Backup Executive	B	A
MC	CRS	B	A
MC	ECS System	B	A
MC	Federal Retirement Benefits (FERS & CSRS	B	A
MC	FCA Website	A	A
MC	FINASST	B	A
MC	Lotus Notes	B	A
MC	MS Office 97	B	A
MC	NFC Payroll Processing	F	F
MC	Oracle	B	A
MC	SMS	B	A
MC	SQL Server	B	A
MC	Windows NT 4.0 Server (DHCP,WINS)	B	A
MC	Windows NT Workstation	B	A
MC-S	Electrical Power (McLean and Field Offices	F	F
MC-S	Sprinklers	A	C
MC-S	Telephone System (Mclean and Field Offices)	F	F

Y2K System Unit Test Status Color Code Matrix

System A	Test Plan In Approval Process
System B	No Test or Contingency Plan
System C	Testing In Process
System D	System Being Replaced
System E	Unit Tests Successfully Completed
System F	Contingency Plan Being Developed
System G	Contingency Plan In Place
System H	System Recommended for Re-Classification