Computer Associates International Inc and Information Analysis Inc (IAI) became the latest companies to jump on the Year 2000 bandwagon with the announcement, yesterday, of a new series of tools that will enable customers to test the whether or not the corrective work carried out on their Cobol systems has been effective. The companies said organizations that make date changes in their computer programs cannot use the same methods to ascertain whether or not the work has been successful. They said tools like their new CA-Fix/2000 and Unicast/2000 are the only independent way of determining whether the programs are identifying and correcting dates appropriately. CA Fix/2000 and Unicast/2000 are available for numerous Cobol environments including: VSE, MVS, CA-IDMS, IBM 68, 74, and 85, Micro Focus, and Unisys DMS1100 and 2200. Brian Nimmo, IAI senior vice president, said the alternative to using IV&V (independent verification and validation) software is to devote thousands of hours to re-mediate a program, reinstalling and testing it, and then finding it does not work properly. CA Fix/2000 and UNICAST/2000 are components of Discovery 2000, a combination of software and services to help reduce the cost and achieve the success of Year 2000 initiatives. Discovery 2000 incorporates automated solutions for every phase of a Year 2000 effort, from initial portfolio assessment through code conversion and testing to final production turnover.
