RCMA Replacement, DND (Oct 1997 – Dec 1998)
This ambitious Oracle project with Solvera Information Services involved the replacement of a legacy system with an entirely new system (a customized extension to an existing COTS Oracle-based application). This project was a huge learning curve for Peter. Although he was a very junior developer, together with another equally-junior colleague he was assigned responsibility for analyzing a legacy data model and mapping new data elements to the Mil-Std 1388-2B data model; creation of database objects including roles, users, tables, indexes, and constraints; assignment of system and table privileges; writing and implementing a data migration process for legacy data using upwards of 300 SQL and PL/SQL scripts; designing and writing a PL/SQL process to dynamically refresh current data from a baseline data set; and developing the user interface using Oracle Forms 4.5 (Developer/2000). He says “This was a case of being thrown in the deep end and having to learn to swim. In the end, after many months of effort, the project was cancelled due to DND staffing changes. This was disappointing, but I came away from the project having learned a great deal on many levels, so for me it was not a wasted experience”.