John Koskinen is President Clinton's point man on the year 2000 computer problem. As head of the President's Council on Y2K Conversion, Koskinen is leading the American effort to renovate the nation's information systems before the end of the millennium, now 14 months away. In an interview with Government Executive, Koskinen assessed federal agencies' efforts to manage the millennium bug.
On how federal Y2K efforts compare to other sectors: It's going to be clear by the first quarter of next year that the federal government is ahead of most states and many major industry sectors in the United States.
While most major industry sectors are making good progress, I don't think most of them are going to be in the shape we are, which is to be basically done by the end of March 1999. There are going to be some companies that will, but if you look at industry sectors, it's going to turn out that the federal government, wherever they were when we started, will in fact turn out to be ahead of, not everybody, but ahead of a lot of industry sectors.
Why the government will be ahead: First, we started some time ago. We set up the first interagency group under Social Security in 1995, so the agencies have really been thinking about this for three years.
Secondly, since the January Cabinet meeting when the President and Vice President talked with the Cabinet secretaries and told them they were personally responsible for the ability of their agencies to solve this problem, it's been a high priority with people at the top of the organizations. That's a critical issue anywhere. If the person running the organization is focused on Y2K, that sends a strong signal to the organization this is not just an IT issue, this is a major priority for the entire operation.
Agencies, in some cases, have had some difficulties. But they have restructured the way they've approached the problem and focused on removing internal obstacles. We still have some challenges. Some agencies are going to be hard-pushed to solve all their problems by the government deadline. But I think we're going to increasingly see very steady and substantial progress.
Take an agency like the Federal Aviation Administration. When I started, everyone had them at the top of their lists as a sure failure. They've now testified and are in the process of being certified that 99 percent of their systems are fixed.
On what a successful Y2K strategy includes: What you're looking for is: Does the person who runs the department have it on their radar screen as a priority? Is the bureau or subagency head-at the IRS or FAA, for example-driving the effort?
Do they have a credible plan with monthly benchmarks or even, now, weekly benchmarks that they're measuring against? When you see an organization that's structured that way, then you have a feeling that they're going to do all right.
On management lessons the Y2K challenge offers: One of the things we're going to learn from this is that information technology is not something that can be left to the technical geniuses. Information technology is an important tool for the basic core operations of an organization. Therefore, the major information technology decisions need to be made by the senior management of an organization, not just by the information resources people.
A lot of senior agency program managers and political appointees, whose eyes used to glaze over when you talked to them about information technology, now feel much more comfortable about making basic decisions or asking questions about whether particular systems or improvements or changes are actually going to make a difference in the performance of the core missions of the agency. In the past, it's been hard for information technology people to get anybody to engage in a dialogue.
Another benefit is program managers and political appointees understanding the importance and value added of independent audits, whether it's the inspector general or the General Accounting Office or others. Y2K is a critical problem. As you're doing the work, you're not looking for people who are misrepresenting the facts. You're looking for validation that, in a very complicated effort, people are continually testing the results and reports. A lot of agencies have a very effective working relationship between the people working on this problem and independent verifiers and validators, who oftentimes are their IGs.
On whether he has Y2K nightmares: Not yet. Although I do find that sometimes if I wake up early in the morning, at 4 or 5, it's a little hard to get back to sleep, because I've got so many things I'm thinking about. But nightmares I do not have yet.
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