| ## To migrate or not to migrate

You need to determine which of your system software needs version or release upgrades to enable you to implement your year 2000 changes. (And hardware if needed for upgraded software.) If you are up to speed with year 2000 ready software, go to the head of the class (and to the next topic). If you are still not sure whether you are, gather your configurations together and check The Year 2000 and 2-Digit Dates .

You may determine that you will not have time to upgrade all of your system. In that case, you need to assess the technical and business impact of down-level products; there may be a work-around. If you are upgrading, be sure to identify a systems programmer for the task and get a plan together.

If you are upgrading, you will also have to assess whether to have separate test cycles for the migration and for the year 2000 updates. Because many of the activities for each are the same, you could save time (and money) by doing the work for both tasks concurrently, touching the code only once, and having only one test cycle. But if the migration upgrade is determined to be problematic, consider having separate tests for each, which will preclude doing them concurrently. In either case, you need to assign the right skills to each of the tasks and determine programming responsibilities carefully. As always: plan!

In any case, doing language migration will definitely give you a collateral benefit.

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