The Y2K date conversion was one of the longest IT projects on record. Given the extended timeline and massive amount of resources dedicated to that project, the only reason it survived to completion was the absolute necessity to change all date formats so they wouldn’t clock out systems at the end of the last century. In other words, enterprises’ Y2K projects succeeded because of their urgency. Everyone knew what was at stake and why the project took so long. Other IT projects aren’t like that. If projects start to lag, or if enthusiasm wanes, it’s time for CIOs and project managers to check i…