What are the most important facts that a developer should know
about this system architecture?
This system must be administered and operated by a non-technical staff
whose technical expertise has been limited to typewriters, some word processing,
and some spreadsheets.
What are the ranked goals of this architecture?
Provide same or better quality Completion Certificates by computer as currently produced using typewriters.
Provide substantially faster daily throughput of Completion Certificate printing than achievable by the current size staff using typewriters.
Require substantially less physical office space for storing "active" (last 3 years) Certificate records.
Extend current procedures to support new electronic out-of-state reporting of student completion records.
What software architecture style is proposed?
Ten peer-to-peer workstations with identical hardware configurations.
All software mirrorred on each workstation so that workstations are interchangeable.
Weekly processed data files will be aggregated on the Master Certificate File on workstation 10 (arbitrary choice).
All Certificate record searches and duplicate printing performed on the Master Certificate File.
What workflow is proposed?
Ten workstations that are interchangeable roster data entry systems (it doesn't matter which workstation
is used to enter a class roster..
Completion certificates are printed on the same workstation used to enter the completion
record.
Weekly, all printed certifcate records are transferred to an administrative workstation.
The transferred weekly certificate records are filtered by the administrative workstation for reporting Out of State.
The transferred weekly certificate records are appended to the Master Certificate File by the admistrative workstation.
All Certificate record searches and duplicate printing performed on the Master Certificate File by the administrative workstation.
What are primary data volume concerns of this system?
Certificate Master File
The only data record credated by roster input activites is the un-printed certificate record for each student
who successfully completed the course.
All temporary files support the change in state of the student certificate records from un-printed to
printed to transferred to the Certificate Master File.
Each peer computer will have an identical set of print routines so that all user operations are the same regardless of
which computer is operated.
Instructor Master File
The Instructor Master File is used as a validation list for roster input. Legislatively, an instructor code on a class roster must map to a currently
certified DSA instructor.
The Instructor Master File is used for data input substitution when the instructor code is found to be valid. The name on the instructor's certification
record is substituted for the instructor's code on the student certificate record.
What are the secondary data volume concerns of this system ?
All temporary files support the change in state of the student certificate records from un-printed to
printed to transferred to the Certificate Master File.
No temporary file has a useful lifetime more than the weekly business cycle.