project

The Final Paper will cover all the points noted below:

1. Describe your project. Create a list of questions to ask your teammates on their project – at least five.  This will assist in flushing out the requirements for the next step.  Full description of the project will be submitted as part of the Final Paper.
2. Project Description (Operational Narrative) definition:Explain the purpose of your system.  Provide at least five business rules (constraints and requirements).  These should be objective and measurable.  Include at leave five deliverables from the system i.e. programs, screens, reports, queries and/or tables required.
3. Entity identification:Select at least five entities for the application.
4. ERD Creation:  Create an ERD diagram using Visio with tables, keys, columns, relationships.  Primary and Foreign keys need to be identified in this diagram.
5. Alternate keys:Identify at least five keys (not already listed as PK or FK) needed by end users. These indexes would be considered Alternate or Secondary keys and are mostly used for queries and quick reporting.  They may contain multiple columns.
6. Data Dictionary:  Take your two largest tables (in terms of columns) and create a data dictionary.  Use appropriate data types and lengths for your attributes.
7. SQL Queries:Describe three SQL queries to provide information to the end users for this system.  At least one must be a join.  These can be real SQL statements or written in English.
8. Complex Transaction:Identify and describe one complex (more than one table) process that will need to be contained within one programming transaction.  For instance, to create a new order you might need to update the customer, order, product and inventory tables.   Another example would be keeping track of tutoring hours you would add hours to the table with a key of tutorid, studentid, dateTutored  and potentially add the hours to the departmental expenses for accounting purposes.
9. XML Export:  Create an XML export of two rows of data from one of your completed tables that has at least 4 columns.
10. Security:Demonstrate your understanding of CIA (confidentiality, data integrity and availability) by explaining how it will be applied to your application.  This should one to two pages providing at least one example pertaining to each of the initials.

Project Description

1. I intend to create a database for a military unit to help manage their readiness for deployment.  Each unit is required to have so many people in various positions that are medically fit, have the appropriate level of proficiency in their jobs, and meet the minimum time left on their contract in order to deploy.  Medical readiness is determined by having a current Physical health assessment on file with no serious issues disclosed along with no pending unfavorable medical action.  When we look at proficiency it is determined by your current rank and what schools you have attended previously.  Remaining time on current contract is determined by your contract termination date or ETS.

Peer Questions and Responses

1. How do you define medical fitness?  Members are required to receive annual physicals to determine if they are still medically capable of serving.  The military has developed a 3-point rating system to determine this eligibility.  Something as simple as a cavity can degrade you from a 1 to 2.  When it comes time for a deployment you are required to be rated a 1 in the six categories.  Pulmonary, Upper Exterminities, Lower Extremities, Hearing, Vision, and Psychology.
2. What research is there to help you understand what medical fitness is for the military?
3. How is the data going to be presented?  The data will be presented using the PULHES ratings 1’s mean good, 2 means potential issues, 3 means not qualified.
4. What information needs to be retrieved from this database other than physical fitness?

Date of rank, promotion eligibility, MOS, NCOES previously completed, Height and weight, most recent physical fitness test results, DLC previously completed and proficiency level

1. How are you going to identify the service men or women in the database?  Color coding
2. Is the database going to be national or for one base or state?  It will be for one specific unit in the state of Michigan
3. Who are the end users of this database?  The Readiness and Medical NCO’s required to monitor the soldiers.
4. Who will do the physical assessments?  We have medical units and civilian contractors provide this service.
5. What factors need to be included in determining the fitness?  When looking at pending issues the diagnosis and extenuating factors have to be taken into consideration regarding the soldier’s specific duties.
6. Is age of the service person going to be included in the database.  Yes
7. How are you going to filter the searches if you want to know who is fit and who is not fit.  By specifically filtering down to soldiers who have 1’s in their medical determinations and whether they are in compliance with height and weight regulations, along with whether they have a passing physical fitness test on file.
8. Will you have categorical data or its going to be quantitative data to define fitness? i.e., fit or not fit, or there is going to be a score.  For physical fitness it will be a score, for height and weight it will be a pass or fail.  As far as medical ratings it will be a pass or fail.
9. With question 7 in mind, is it going to be rated on a scale from low fitness to no fitness? No, it will be qualified or not qualified.
10. How is rank important in determining the fitness for deployment? Please clarify this point.  When looking at deployment we require service members at different ranks based on the responsibilities of the mission.  The more rank a person you have the more responsibility you are expected to take on however you are paid based on your rank.  So, funding for missions takes a part when planning.  It is cheaper to have more lower enlisted or new soldiers, but without experienced soldiers to lead them more issues arise.  On the other hand, if you send all higher ranked service members then you blow the budget for the mission and newer soldiers are robbed of the chance to learn.
11. How are you going to determine who goes in what position? What attributes or qualities are you looking at and how are they displayed in an information system and how do users retrieve that information.  Service members are put in positions based on their rank and proficiency level.  Users will be able to filter down by several different parameters.
12. The last point on remaining time on current contract is a bit confusing to me, maybe because I do not know what happens when people are deployed but I am wondering how it fits in to determining medical fitness for deployment. Please explain this point further.  A service member cannot be deployed with less than a year on their current contract to avoid their contract expiring while they are currently deployed.  This must be taken into consideration to avoid this from happening.  If a service member does not agree to extend their contract out far enough to return from the deployment than they are ineligible to go.