At the time that most projects are initiated, in estimate is made of the expected life span of the new system as a part of a cost-benefit evaluation. However, on an anecdotal basis, it appears that most systems remain in production fir longer than their original planned life span. Research this topic on the Web and/or in your school library, In addition, conduct an informal survey of system administrators in several local public and private sector agencies.

a. Describe the articles that you found and their viewpoints on this subject.

b. Describe the informal survey you conducted, including the nature of organizations that were included in the survey and the types of systems they use.

c. What was the average difference you found, if any, between expected life span and actual life span of systems?

d. To what do you attribute the tendency to keep systems in production beyond their expected life span?

e. What was the oldest system you found still in production? (It is not uncommon to find systems dating back to the 1970s, depending upon the nature of the organization. Finding a system originally implemented in the 19605 would be rare, although some are known to still exist!)