Social Security Administration (SSA) Case Study
The first major problem the Social Security Administration (SSA) had was with software. SSA software resulted from decades of programming techniques. The software was a product of unplanned patchwork, with no regard give to its deterioration over time. The SSA?s files and programs were maintained on over 500,000 reels of magnetic tape. This caused problems because the magnetic tape was not very durable, and began to crack and deteriorate. There were 76 different software systems making up SSA?s basic computer operations. There were more than 1,300 computer programs, encompassing over 12 million lines of COBOL and other code. Most of the code was undocumented. Although they worked, not many people knew how or why they worked. The maintenance of the system was were complex and costly.
The second major problem was the hardware. By 1982, most of the computers the SSA used had not been manufactured for over 10 years. Today, if your computer is 3-4
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