United's System Meltdown

The Problem: On the morning of Wednesday, June 20, smack in the middle of one of the busiest traveling weeks, United Airlines' primary flight operations system crashed. A United spokeswoman says an employee accidentally disabled the computers while running a routine test on Unimatic, United's flight operations system. More than 260 United flights were delayed for an average of 90 minutes, and nearly 70 other flights were cancelled altogether. "It was just simple human error during a routine test of our flight operation system. It's unfortunate, but we're developing new processes that will prevent future issues like these from impacting our customers," said United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski. Making matters worse, according to Urbanski, was the fact that the snafu also knocked out Unimatic's backup system.

Key Lesson: Redundancy isn't the greatest thing in conversation, but for systems operations, it's a must. Backup systems need to be tested and tested again to ensure they'll work when needed. And if a system goes down, locating the problem—and fixing it quickly—can be the difference between a minor delay and all out shutdown of business. And in a high-traffic period, a major snafu can both hurt the bottom line and damage customer loyalty.

Next page: How to Land a Cushy Corporate I.T. Job

Next: ' How to Land a ' >>

Discuss Out of Scope: Tales From The Tech Project Front   >>> Be the FIRST to comment on this article!

>>> More Projects: Management Articles          >>> More By Brian P. Watson