Will the project team make up those three months in the time remaining AND increase productivity to the point where the project is back on track? Do you believe it? Given your progress so far, where does your hope come from? Or will history repeat itself again and you're looking at yet another project out of control? And this time it really matters.

Do you switch gears and give up trying to fix the broken system and instead, go out and buy a new one? When will you make that decision? Because it takes time to install a new accounting system. Time is the thing that's in short supply -- that and the courage to make the decision to act, which is why we're in this time crunch in the first place!

Years ago we were faced with the same type of decision. Do we start fixing the Year 2000 problem now? The decision to fix the problem wasn't easy, it was resisted, and it was going to hurt. So many companies held off doing the right thing. The question of triage is our second, and last chance to save the company. Will we all make the same mistake again?

Or, instead will we create hard and fast, "points of no return"? Where a project is late, do you have a contingency plan that kicks in automatically, no matter how much it hurts to do so?

Once upon a time
Once upon a time, we could afford to tread gently on the Year 2000 topic. Time does not permit social niceties anymore. Time has run out for many companies if their plan is to convert all their systems. Now they must perform triage and decide which systems they'll try to save and which they'll sacrifice on the altar of expediency.

Triage is a nasty choice. It's a choice of last resort. It's the type of choice we should have done everything to avoid. For many, it may be the only choice remaining.

Once upon a time we had the time to do this right. We could have converted everything at our leisure. For starters, we could have written systems correctly in the first place. No muss. No fuss. And I'd be writing more enjoyable articles.

On the Internet Year2000 discussion list, Jordan Wouk from Merck-Medco Managed Care based in Montvale, NJ, suggested the time has come to find a balance "between urgency and panic". As you can tell, I'm having some difficulty in finding that balance. The situation is gloomy. Unless of course, you've been proactive and have already fixed your systems. Can you imagine the competitive advantage you'll have, when you can offer an airline ticket in 50,000 flavors and your competition can only offer vanilla?

Peter de Jager is one of the leaders in the fight to prepare corporations for the Year 2000. For more information, you can visit his comprehensive site on the Year 2000, located at http://www.year2000.com.