Administrative Computer Services

Committee Information Tracking System

Data Model & General Requirements

Ramón H. Venegas
Administrative Computer Services
Northeastern University

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Introduction

The Committee Information Tracking System (CTS) is a software project of the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Education and Administrative Computer Services intended to facilitate the management of information related to university committees.

The sections below describe CTS's general functional requirements followed by a description and schematic of the preliminary data model. The last section contains descriptions of all data items in the preliminary data model.

Other related documents include:

CTS Functional Specifications

CTS Detailed Software Design

General Functional Requirements

CTS main purpose is to facilitate the tracking of committee membership information in order to easily generate various membership lists. Within this context, CTS will track information for each committee member, committee meetings, and tasks related to the committee's work.

There are five functional areas planned for the first release of CTS:

  1. Person Information. This area of CTS will provide an easy to use interface for maintaining members information such as NEU ID, name, addresses, etc. Initially, this information will be entered manually. It is planned that this information will be captured from existing HRM sources in the next release of CTS. This feature will provide functions to add and delete individuals as well as to update existing information.
  2. Committee Information. This area of CTS will provide an easy to use interface for maintaining committee information such as committee name, type, sponsor information, etc. This feature will provide functions to add and delete committees as well as to update existing information.
  3. Membership Information. For each committee member, this area of CTS will provide an easy to use interface for maintaining membership information such as position within the committee, status, membership term, etc. This feature will provide functions to add and delete membership in committees as well as to update existing information.
  4. Committee Meetings. For each committee meeting, this area of CTS will provide an easy to use interface for maintaining meeting information such as date, time, place, etc. This feature will provide functions to add and delete meetings as well as to update existing information. CTS will allow the user to track attendance for each member.
  5. Committee Tasks. For each committee, this area of CTS will provide an easy to use interface for maintaining committee task information such as description, dates, members assigned, etc. This feature will provide functions to add and delete tasks and assignments as well as to update existing information.
The following diagram illustrates the functional hierarchy planned for CTS:

Preliminary CTS Data Model

The diagram below describes the CTS data model using a simplified entity-relationship notation. Full description of each entity is given in the last section of this document.


 

CTS Table and column Definitions

This section provides link(s) to a detail definition of the tables and columns in the CTS data model. The definitions were generated using MS Access 2.0 in postcript format. Here are two links to postcript readers: PostScript Viewer for Windows - shareware, and Obtaining Aladdin Ghostscript- free. I might be able to help you with the installation of either one with your web browser.

Detail Definition of CTS Tables & Columns

A sequential log of comments and questions from reviewers of this document is located HERE.

CTS Development Schedule

Fri. Fri. Fri. Fri. Fri. Fri. Fri. 
12/20 1/17 1/24 2/14 TBA TBA TBA TBA
(1) - (2)- (3) -(4)-(4.1)-(4.2)-(5)-(6)
Tasks ... STATUS
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(1) Complete General Requirements and Data Model...DRAFT COMPLETED & PUBLISHED
(2) Complete Functional Description...DRAFT COMPLETED
(3) Complete System Design...DRAFT COMPLETE
(4) Complete Prototype...COMPLETED - demo presented on 2/19/97
(4.1) Add Person info. auto loading to prototype...COMPLETED 3/7/97
(4.2) Demo/Training provost staff...COMPLETED 3/11/97
(5) Complete & Deploy System...DEPLOYED TO TEST USERS ON 5/12/97
(6) Publish final documentation...ALL DRAFTS PUBLISHED
(7) Receive user feedback...RECEIVED 7/31/97..view it HERE
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A log of the development timelines and tasks is provided HERE