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From: Chambers Anne
O[/O=EXCHANGE/OU=ADMINGROUP1/CN=RECIPIENTS/CN=ANNE.CHAMBERS]
Sent: Wed 03/09/2008 5:27:19 PM (UTC)
To: Jenkins Gareth G
Ce: Peach Mi - GRO
Subject: I RE: Response to Action AP0108003 from POL/Fujitsu P&BA Workshop 1 August 2008
Gareth,
Please wait for Mik to ok this, but in the meantime, I've made a couple of comments below.
Anne
From: Jenkins Gareth GI
Sent: 03 September 2008 17:39
To: Burton John; Chambers Anne O
Subject: Response to Action AP0108003 from POL/Fujitsu P&BA Workshop 1 August 2008
John,
I propose sending the following to Mike Stewart to pass on to POL:
Does that seem OK?
Anne: Have I got my facts right? Are you happy about being referred to?
Regards
Gareth
Mike,
Presumably this is the action that Shaun is chasing you about:
Provide detailed explanation of the issue that impacted Craigpark BIM BE-0158102.
I have checked this out and we have seen this happen only 3 times in the life of TP since $90 (2 years +) and it has
happened Twice at Craigpark once which was benign. It was decided at the time that there could be a fix introduced (I
understand what is being proposed for the bug fix and if it were to go wrong could impact the whole estate so avoiding such
a fix sounds like the correct decision).
I suggest we reply to Shaun as follows:
1. We are aware of a very rare timing problem in Horizon that results in data from the Stock Unit Rollover Process
not being recorded correctly while a Stock Unit is Balancing
1. This results in a non-zero Trading Position on the BTS and so is very visible to the Postmasters
1. We have identified (that suggests we can identify affected branches - how about 'We are aware of’) only two
occurrences of this problem in the last 2 years - one of which was at CraigPark in December 2007 as described
previously by Anne Chambers of Fujitsu's SSC
1. Asymptom of this timing problem is the occurrence of a specific event in the Event Log (a diagnostic too! which
is separate from the message journal). This event occurs fairly frequently for all sorts of reasons. However most
occurrences of this event in the Event Log are benign. Anne did note a benign occurrence of this event at
CraigPark in February 2008. As she reported in the request about CraigPark, she carried out detailed checks of
every rollover of that branch and was satisfied that the February event was benign, and there was only a system
problem in December.
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1. Therefore a more accurate description of the problem is that we have many occurrences of a timing event in the
Event Logs. We have identified two occurrences of this event in the last 2 years which have resulted in an
accounting problem and the rest appear to be benign, or had a minor effect which did not impact the branch
accounts. (That suggests we have checked them all out, found 2 are problems and the rest are ok. I think that is
putting it a bit strongly. But, having tried to reword it, perhaps it's for the best...! put the last bit in because of the
harvester problem which POL may be aware of ) One of the occurrences of the accounting problem was at Craig
Park and we have at least one other occurrence of the event at Craig Park which has been investigated and
shown to be benign.
1. We do have a possible mitigation for the timing problem as identified in the 2 cases of an accounting problem
being generated. However given the fact that the accounting problem has only occurred twice in two years we
were of the opinion that the risk of attempting to fix the problem may well outweigh the benefit of such a fix. This
decision is being reviewed again in light of this action following the normal Fujitsu processes for deciding which
problems are worth fixing.
Does that cover everything?
Whatever the final wording, since we can't actually identify affected branches ourselves but only know if someone brings
a branch to our attention, we need to leave it just a little more open as there may be more that we don't yet know about.
In fact I'd be surprised if there aren't one or two more out there already.
Regards
Gareth
Gareth Jenkins
ished Engineer
Applications Architect
Royal Mail Group Account
Road, Br
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